Some Moral Support
by TwilightPrince101
Summary: [A Sing (2016) AU in which Meena has a friend that supports her on their Singing Competition Adventure (goes by they/them pronouns)] Meena and Jude were practically like family; They were almost never seen apart, and they always supported each other! But when a singing competition pops up in town, can that support go too far? (Constructive criticism greatly appreciated! Thanks!)
1. Some Moral Support

**Some Moral Support**

It was a special day in the Ini household; Grandpa Ini had just turned 67! From the moment he woke up he was greeted with a delightful birthday breakfast in bed! Fluffy buttermilk pancakes stacked on top of a wide, neon yellow tray, accompanied by an assortment of fruits and, to top it all off, maple and chocolate syrup was drizzled all over the stack. Grandpa Ini practically inhaled the delectable meal made by the lights of his life: his wife, daughter and granddaughter. After many hugs and kisses, they all then gathered in the living room to give gifts. From his granddaughter, a large pack of lenses wipes along with a new case for said glasses. From his daughter, a brand new cane made with slick, polished wood to replace the slowly splintering stick. Then from his wife, a new suit and tie that he had been eyeing for a while every time they went into town. After several more hugs and kisses, they then ushered him into the dining room as Meena went into the kitchen.

Everybody had gathered around the table, killed the lights, and Grandpa sat on one of the big, sturdy chairs. Meena, the youngest light of grandpa Ini's life, gently picked up her grandpa's triple layered birthday cake, which had been cooling down on the windowsill for around ten minutes after being pulled out of the oven. Then as Meena's mother saw Meena nodding to her, motioning that the cake was ready, she and her mother slowly and surely sang "Happy Birthday" together.

" _Happy birthday to you,_

 _Happy birthday to you!"_

Walking in from the kitchen, Meena Ini held the giant three layered birthday cake for her grandpa, with all of the candles lit up with dancing flames on their wicks. Grandpa Ini ogled the cake, eager to dig into his family's most recent masterpiece. The breakfast in bed had sped through his digestive system to make way for the sweet treat! But as his granddaughter walked around to place the big cake at the table, the attention turned away from the cake and onto her daughter.

" _Happy biiirthdaaay, dear graaandpaaaa~"_

Meena's harmonious voice was the only noise that now filled the room, as the rest of the family had completely went agape from the teenager's talent. She had been known since the first years of her life that she had a knack for singing, and her family always encouraged her whenever she did so. But it never stopped the family from being astonished by her every time. Even now, they were all mesmerized by Meena simply singing her grandfather's birthday song.

" _Haaapy biiirthdaaay, tooooooo yooouuuuu!"_

As the young elephant finished the last verse, she relaxed herself and took a deep breath to let her lungs recover from her performance. When she opened her eyes, she folded back her ears slightly when she noticed that the rest of her family was staring at her. Meena looked at her three family members, and folded her cheeks began to heat up in embarrassment when all of them let out a collective "Awwww!" They just couldn't help themselves whenever they heard their little angel sing for them all! Meena slowly opened back up and let out a chuckle of embarrassment.

"What?" The young elephant giggled while asking. "C'mon grandpa, make your wish!" She put down the big birthday cake right in the middle of the table and gestured to her grandpa to blow out the candles. But Grandpa didn't exactly seem happy seeing his granddaughter dismissing her own natural talent. He lightly pounded his big hand on the dining room table, and proceeded to go into his usual rant about Meena and her talent. How she should join a choir, how he would be a star with Meena's voice, the usual. It was known by memory to everyone in the family, and they stopped him before he ranted for another hour. With a huff, grandpa Ini blows out the candles with a mighty toot of the trunk, accidentally causing some candles to fly out of the window.

The family all enjoys the cake, as not only was much love put into the cake, but it was one of Mrs. Ini's new recipes as well which never disappoints! Grandma Ini puts some leftovers in the fridge, then scrunches up together on the couch to watch some TV with her husband and daughter. Meena politely volunteers to clean the dishes after a slight debate, and then puts on her headphones to listen to her favorite songs while she scrubs the frosting and candle wax off of the plates. She slowly starts to hum some "Coldplayers" songs, and lightly taps her foot to the beat. Grandma Ini manages to hear Meena's hums over the sound of the football game, and lightly giggles to herself. She always loved it whenever Meena peeked out of her shell to sing some music.

Then suddenly, a sound came from outside of the house, which sounded as if something had fallen. Grandma Ini took notice of it, but after looking out of the window she saw nothing. She dismissed it as just the wind and sat back down, but then sharp, rapid knocks came from the front entrance. They were all frantic and quick but had the intensity of somebody trying to escape a criminal. After a brief argument ("I already got up earlier, you go answer it!") The Mrs. got up from her spot on the couch and approached the front door, where the knocks continued on and on without any signs of stopping. She could faintly hear a frantic voice from the other side yelling excitedly "Meena! Meeeeena!" For a moment the family exchanged glances with one another, wondering if Meena was expecting anybody that day. They all shrugged, and not wanting the animal to wait any longer, Mrs. Ini opened the door to greet the guest.

On the other side was a yellow and black spotted Jaguar, who was panting and sweating as if they had just completed a long, grueling workout. The jaguar wore slightly torn, dark blue jeans with holes that were not for fashion purposes along with a dark, completely black crop top with no design on it whatsoever. On their feet were worn down, green and brown sneakers that had been used and abused for years to the point where the soles are almost gone. Their tail flicked back and forth from side to side, and their mouth was open while she panted, showing their sharp, piercing fangs. In their right paw, there was a crumpled up piece of orange paper, which was slightly torn from some claw damage along the way. The jaguar practically stumbled into the house after saying a quick greeting through their rapid pants, and was greeted with similar reactions.

"Oh hello there Jude! How nice of you to come over!" Mrs. Ini invited the jaguar in, who took off their beaten, worn shoes to shoe slightly better slick socks. Jude took a deep breath to try and stabilize their breathing, but ended up just making things more difficult and became more exhausted. As they put a paw against the wall to prevent themself from falling over, Grandma and Grandpa Ini both almost leaped up from their seats when they heard the name of their granddaughter's old friend.

"Jude! Well isn't this a nice birthday surprise!" Grandpa waved his hand at the jaguar, fumbling with some leftover cake that almost fell. "We haven't seen you in ages, how have ya' been? What brings you here? Most importantly, did you bring me any gifts?" Grandpa Ini let out a chuckle, earning him a light smack in the arm from his wife. In the kitchen, the granddaughter hummed on, oblivious to what was happening in the next room over.

"Would you like some cake hon? We have lots of leftovers if you want a slice!" Grandma offered, but Jude stayed where they were to try and catch their breath. The family looked between each other, confused at why the old friend was so exhausted. All three approached the whiskerless child with genuine care on their faces, hoping that there wasn't something wrong. Taking a deep breath, Jude faced each of the elephants to greet and answer them individually.

"Nice to see you too ma'm, Happy Birthday sir, I'll have some in a bit. Where is Meena?!" They had said it so quick and desperately that it seemed hard to understand them at first. The exasperated expression on the jaguar's face was gone and now was replaced with an expression of pure, childish joy. The three adults glanced at one another, slightly worried about what might happen. Slightly confused, Grandma gestured to the kitchen doorway, where the sound of running water and humming could be heard.

"Meena's in there, but what's the fuss? You looked like you ran in from all the way across town!" Grandma spoke, only to be met with a loud declaration in return.

"I did!" Jude yelled proudly to the family, with just a touch of craziness in their voice. All three of the adults jumped slightly from the response as Jude began to adjust the paper that they had with them. After fumbling with the orange flyer, they managed to straighten it out and showed it to the three elephants excitedly. "Look at this! I found it downtown today and I knew I had to bring this to Meena, so I ran all the way down here!" The family all collectively read the large, bolded words on the paper and their jaws went slack; a bite of Grandpa's extra cake fell to the carpet, along with the rest of the plate. Jude saw all of their reactions from a narrow tear peephole in the flyer. After a few moments of silence, the birthday man broke the silence.

"Well what're you waiting for? Go on, show her now!" Grandpa yelled, shooing her off to the kitchen. The Mrs. and Grandma started excitedly giggling to each other, imagining what Meena could do and how excited she would be as well. Jude compiled with the grandfather's request and went into a full-on sprint to the kitchen, crumbling up the flyer in their paw a second time. As they ran into the tiled kitchen, the jaguar's heart skipped a beat when she saw the elephant washing some porcelain dishes and enthusiastically yelled "Meena! Meen _oooOAH!"_

The jaguar slipped on the slick floor, slamming their stomach into the kitchen counter and let out all of the air in their system. The crash Meena could both hear AND feel, as it made one dish slip out of her grasp and into the bathtub of a sink, causing her sweatshirt get wet. She snapped her out of the song-induced trance and her head spun around, making the little tufts of hair flop slightly from the spin. Seeing her friend clutching their stomach while coughing and gasping for breath, Meena ripped off her headphones and ran to their aid.

"Jude! Are you okay, are you hurt?" Meena put a caring palm on their shoulder as they attempted to get up. Their socks slipped on the tile again and they fell to their knees once again, almost knocking their head onto the kitchen counter. Trying to avoid talking, Jude gave a simple thumbs up and gripped the counter to help support them getting up. Their claws accidentally scratched the corner.

"What are you doing here? Didn't-oh please be careful-didn't you have work to do today?" Meena asked, both confused at her friend's sudden appearance and concerned at how they injured themself. Finally managing to get onto one knee, Jude brushed off their injury with a smile and a chuckle. Behind the two, the rest of the Ini family waited in anticipation for Meena to read the orange flyer.

"I know, I know, but don't worry!" The jaguar said weakly. Offering the crushed flyer to her, Jude said "You have to look at this!"

Meena took the orange paper hesitantly while the rest of the family funneled into the kitchen behind Jude. The timid teenager's anxiety began to spark as everyone began to loom over her shoulder, but she felt obligated to continue. Meena flattened out the flyer on the counter, and read what was on the paper after glossing over some of the cute illustrations and claw scratches. As she read down the paper further and further, her eyes sparkled more and more, making her friend smile as they finally fully stood up.

 **Singing Competition Auditions**

THE WINNER WILL RECEIVE

 **THE GRAND PRIZE**

 **Of**

 **$100,000**

 _Open auditions at The Moon Theatre_

The young elephant's face lit up as if the sun had shined down a beam of light right onto her as she finished reading! Meena looked to her friend, who seemed even more excited for this than she was. They had their hands gripped tightly around one another and their eyes had this sort of sparkle in them. The rest of Meena's family had the exact same expression as well. Jude said nothing and awaited to hear Meena's response and she gladly obliged.

"Jude, how did-where did you find this?" The young elephant asked with amazement. Her feline friend was more than happy to explain.

"Alright so, I was walking downtown ready to get some of those glazed doughnut holes from _Joe's Coffee_ (You KNOW how much I like those things). But as I was about to go in, I just saw a bunch of these papers just-' _FWOOSH!'"_ The jaguar made a sort of sweeping motion with their hands to make her point. "Right out of the top window of that big theater place! So I jumped up and grabbed one of them and I immediately knew that you had to see this! And then I just, ran! I didn't even stop for a bus or to get the doughnut holes, I just ran straight here from all across town!"

Meena looked from her friend to the paper again, scanning the flyer one more time to just to make sure that she didn't read something the wrong way. Once she confirmed to herself that she, indeed, read nothing wrong, her mind began to race.

' _A singing competition. Here! In this city! Was this up somewhere before did-did this just release today?! Jude said themself that they saw them fly out the window, this must have been shown today!'_ She began to bounce up and down, but as her mind continued to wander, the sparkle faded from her eyes. The rest of Meena's family looked over her shoulder, eager to see an excited expression on their face similar to when she was a child in elementary school. But when they all saw Meena's usual timid expression, their hopes began to fade.

"Jude, you-we both know how nervous I get in front of crowds. I mean, a singing competition? I'll be in front of so many people, I'll just freeze up when I get to the stage." The smile vanished from Jude's face when they saw that Meena's stage fight had kicked in. But not wanting Meena to pass up another opportunity to show off her beautiful voice, her family patted her on the back to try and raise her spirits again.

"Oh don't you give your friend that!" Grandma Ini spoke up with a scolding tone. The young elephant's ears folded in when her grandmother placed her hoof on her shoulder. "They ran all the way here from Downtown just to show you that flyer! You gotta at least try!" Meena tried to hide behind her large ears again, holding the flyer closer to her chest to try and deal with all of the peer pressure around her.

"B-but I, I"-

"Meena, Meena girl! C'mon, look at me. Looooook at meeeeeeeee!" Jude playfully toyed with their friend, gently patting their friend by the shoulders. Meena, while the pressure boiled inside of her, uncovered her face a little to look at them in their determination-filled eyes.

"Do you know how much faith we have in you?" Jude asked. The elephant looked away and nodded meekly.

"Do you know how many times we've said you have an angel voice?" Meena nodded again.

"Do you really think that you would sound bad if you went up on that stage?'

"N-no I know!" She pulled away from her friend, almost causing them to slip for a third time. "But whenever I see all those people looking at-staring at me, I just"-

"Then just bring Jude with you hon!" Her mom butted in. Meena's internal alarms rose since her mother tried to involve other people to convince her, trying to do anything to make her go. Jude looked at Mrs. Ini somewhat startled, but then their face lit up and they looked back at their friend nodding very excitedly, only amplifying her sirens.

"Yeah! What she said, I'll come with you! I'll just be there to cheer you on though, don't worry, I remember what happened last time. I'll make sure that you don't freeze up! I will BE there Meena for you Meena! That is a promise!"

The elephant stared at her friend, who was letting off a hopeful smile to her. Despite all of the alarms going off in her head about how she shouldn't go, certain things helped defuse them. Her friend was here, out of the blue, and was now willing to help and spend time with her despite their countless jobs. This could be her chance to not only try to conquer her fear, but to also talk with each other about what they missed since Jude decided to take all of their part time jobs. She looked to her family, who were all giving her eager looks of anticipation to hear her answer to the question they were all thinking. Meena took one more look down at the flyer and made her final decision. She held it close to her, looked at her friend Jude, and gave a slow nod.

The entire family rejoiced, whooping and hollering for their daughter's decision. Jude ran up to her and gave the big elephant a gigantic hug, almost managing to lift her up! Their tail flicked even more from how happy they were, and her family were hugging each other just from her decision, as if she already knew that she was going to win. Meena hugged back and, going along with everyone else, laughed as well.

"Looks like I'm gettin' my wish after all!" Grandpa cheered, pumping his fist into the air.


	2. Too Much

Too Much

That night, Jude stayed at the Ini household, agreeing with Meena's parents that it would be best since their houses are too far apart and the first bus for downtown came early in the morning. The Mrs. also said that it would be "a good chance to help the two catch up!", and both the jaguar and elephant agreed on that deal. With help from Grandma Ini, Meena carried in the guest mattress that they had in storage. It was much larger than Jude themself, but they didn't mind and happily flopped down on it, being met with a delightful bounce. After everything was set up, the adults left the two friends to their business.

For the next hour, the two listened to almost every song in Meena's personal playlist to try to decide what she would sing for the auditions. The listened to songs from " _Seal," "Baboon 5_ " and what felt like hundreds more while Jude munched on the three layered cake. They also complimented on how the cake had three different flavors just in one slice, and Mrs. Ini considered it a job well done when she heard it from the living room. After listening to every song in Meena's collection, the two finally deciding on a song: " _Chandelier_ " by Seea. It was not their first choice, but since Meena had to blow everyone out of the water at auditions, Jude suggested the song in which their friend could paint the lyrics easily with their personal flair.

Then when the final choice was made, the two decided to practice the best way they knew how: the karaoke machine. It was an old present that Jude's parents gave to the Inis one Christmas, and it was the best form of entertainment for the two children. All you had to do was pop in a CD for the song, and then it would play while the kids sang into microphones. There was also a camera on top to record them and rewatch the perfection that was kids singing off-key to their favorite songs. And the best part was that it was small enough to fit in any closet!

Both Jude and Meena used the machine all the time when they were kids; singing as if they were the main attraction in a gigantic concert. Over time the machine was forgotten, but in the present it was exactly what the two needed. Meena carried the dusty old relic out of their closet, cleaning off the inch of dust, then plugged it in. The tiny screen let off static if somebody put their paw too close to the screen as it started up. Jude put the CD of " _Chandelier_ " into the tray, and the echoes of the beginning of the song began to play their mystic tunes. Meena sung the song over and over for half an hour, and Jude gave criticism where it was needed each time it ended. Sometimes Meena forgot the lines for the lyrics, while other times she became distracted by something and zone out, but she always managed to correct her mistakes each time. The two wanted to make sure that they were 100% ready for tomorrow, knowing the lyrics by heart and knowing when to insert Meena's personal flair. But after much giggling and eight repeats of the same song, Meena's grandpa popped in and told the two that it was time to rest up for the night. Whether he wanted the two to get up early for auditions or he got tired of hearing the same song over and over, nobody was sure. But regardless of which reason it was, the two complied. Meena put on her PJs while Jude kept on what they were wearing and went to bed.

The next morning, Meena and Jude were woken up at 5:00 AM by Grandma to get prepared early. After freshening up, putting on a fresh set of clothes and brushing her teeth, Meena headed to the kitchen to join Jude, who had already completed their morning routine and was eating breakfast. " _Chandelier_ " was still stuck in her head from last night, which she figured was only natural since she practiced it 8 times in a row. As Meena approached, she could hear her mother and Jude talking, and at first she thought nothing of it. But when she heard the two begin to whisper, she stopped right before the doorway. The elephant knew that it was only her mother and Jude in the room, so why would they need to keep their conversation a secret?

The Mrs. and Jude whispered to each other quietly to make sure that nobody heard them, but the daughter's hearing picked up parts of their conversation. All she could hear between the two was mumbling, but it seemed as if their conversation was very serious. She picked up one of the two hissing through their teeth, as if scolding the other. It was clear that whoever was talking wanted to get a point across. The daughter leaned in and opened up an ear to try to get a better understanding, still staying hidden to figure out what they were speaking about. But as she leaned in closer, the floorboards creaked and the whispering stopped. Everyone in the house went silent, and the only noise was pancake mix on the griddle being prepared.

"Meena, is that you honey?" Her mother said, calling her out and folding her ear back in. She put on a happy mask and entered the kitchen, faking a yawn in the process. In the kitchen was her mother, making her signature fluffy pancakes for breakfast once again, while Jude was carrying two plates for the both of them. They both said their good mornings to her and acted as if nothing had happened, but the tension was still lingering in the air. She was tempted to ask what had just happened, but with the way that the two were just talking and how they suddenly began to pretend, she could tell that it wouldn't even matter in the end. So they both just ate breakfast, finished their morning routines and left for the competition.

The bus stop was very crowded, but they had both arrived just in time as the bus rolled up. Jude pulled the both of them ahead of everybody and snatched two seats in the front, much to the anger of everybody else. Meena's neighborhood was the first stop, so there was nobody else in any of the seats, and Jude considered the two of them lucky. The jaguar stuffed some spending money (from Meena's parents) into their pocket while the bus rolled away. While Jude went off daydreaming about things unknown to the elephant, Meena put her headphones in to listen to Chandelier again and make sure she had the lyrics down. The bus went by a couple more stops to pick up more and more animals, who all seemed to dress up nicely for that specific day. Jude nudged Meena and pointed to all of the other passengers.

"It looks like everyone here had the same idea." the jaguar whispered.

Meena started to look slightly nervous as the bus pulled into one last stop before downtown, filling the bus up to its maximum animal limit. Some of the animals were a few timid sheep, a trio of sassy bunnies, a porcupine duo, an upbeat gator, and a motherly looking pig. The last one, however, accidentally fell flat on her snout as she was prancing up the steps, causing the two friends and some other passengers to let out an sympathetic "oooooohh." But she still got up enthusiastically, lightly slapping her cheeks and sat in an open seat across the isle, gently rubbing her snout.

After a 50 minute bus ride filled with animals of all sorts of shapes and species, they rounded the corner to the street of Moon Theatre! Everyone looked out the window to see the towering building loom over everyone, tempting them to rush inside and perform at their absolute best! Meena however, was not one of those people. When she saw the large theatre and just how big it was, she started to become visibly nervous. Jude could hear her calm breathing change into a slightly nervous pattern, with sharper breaths and fidgety hands.

Everyone also saw a large line waiting right outside filled with animals waiting to audition, which didn't exactly help Meena's anxiety either. It stretched from the entrance of the building, to two other blocks down! Both Jude and Meena guessed wrong; EVERYONE in town had the exact same idea the two had, and some even showed signs of camping out since dusk last night! The two friends gave each other a _"This is going to be a long day_ " type of look. But despite the length of the line, one upside was that the bus station was right next to where the line currently ended.

But as soon as the bus pulled to a stop and opened its doors, all of the other passengers leaped from their seats and made a mad dash to the front door, pushing and shoving others to get a good spot in line. While some managed to get ahead and be first in the new addition to the line, many other animals were trampled and almost crushed in the stampede. When all of the other animals were off of the bus, the last three remaining were the friend duo and the female pig. The lady and Meena were grasping the seats of the bus, not prepared for the commotion that just happened. Jude, however, was somehow knocked from the isle and back into their seat, upside down..

"Yeah, you know what?" The feline spoke up. "I deserved that."

"Believe me kid," the bus driving rhino pitched in, "when you've been doing this type of gig as long as I have, you get used to behavior like this." None of the three were sure if she was trying to be sympathetic or sarcastic. Meena and the pig helped Jude up after recovering themselves, and after brushing themselves off, left the bus to be greeted with the three block long line

They all looked at the dreadful wait ahead of them and groaned at the length of it all. With nothing else to do, they dragged their feet to the back to wait. But one more animal decided to hop in front of them while skidding to a stop on his skateboard. A large, burly gorilla that wore clean jeans, leather jacket and green lightning bolt shirt underneath it. Jude gaped and motioned to Meena, obviously frustrated at the sudden addition. He did glance over and say "Sorry lads," but he had said it so fast that nobody could even hear what he said. So all sighing, they got in line and started the long, agonizing wait to get in for auditions. Although it wouldn't be a long wait for them to run into trouble.

"Alright alright move it chumps! Actual performer coming through here!" A fairly authoritative sounding, yet small voice rang out. The four back-liners looked behind them to the source of the voice and found a small, snow white mouse dressed in a red and black suit and hat. He was holding another one of the orange flyers in his hand, despite it being much larger than himself, and was walking by everyone as if he had some sort of right to be ahead of them. Jude did not take this lightly. They flicked their tail willingly to block the mouse's path before he could go any further, and made him stumble backwards and fall on his behind.

"Hey, what's the big idea?!" the mouse yelled to the jaguar. With a sassy hand on their hip, Jude flicked her tail again to push the mouse back further in the line, only causing the mouse's anger to flare up. The gorilla and elephant found this quite funny.

"Wait your turn like everybody else here shorty." They spoke. The blood-dressed mouse when agape and chuckled, motioning to the jaguar while looking at the motherly woman.

"Ha! Do you even know who you're talking to ki"-

"I wouldn't care if you were some sort of president from across the sea or some sort of celebrity." The jaguar did not let anybody talk as if they had some sort of superiority over them. "We got in line before you, end of story. Wait your turn."

"Yeah, just stop complainin' and be patient like the rest of us." the gorilla in front of them added on, getting tired of the mouse's "Authority" just as fast as Jude did. Jude appreciated his stance, but still didn't forgive him for stealing their spot just yet. Seeing that the four wouldn't be letting up any time soon and also getting tired of arguing, the mouse stepped behind the pig and let out a huff. The four ahead of him smiled.

Meena took another look up at the theatre-despite it being so far away-and soaked in the atmosphere like a big absorbent sponge. It felt very obvious to her that she seemed scared, but she just blasted the music a bit louder in her sensitive ears to try not to focus on the impending terror she would have to face. But she couldn't resist in the end and looked back up at the building one more time. Through one of the higher-up windows, she could see a properly dressed koala look down at the long stretch of animals, pressing his face against the glass to see the length of it. After a moment, he began to jump up and down and ran away from the window in an excited rush.

' _That must have been Mr. Moon_.' the elephant thought. She would have to face him soon, head on, and sing straight to the owner of this large, intimidating theatre.

' _Would he like my singing? I mean he would have to listen to a bunch of other songs before me, so would he even listen to mine? Will he even listen at all? He might get sick of all of the songs beforehand though, so that means we're at a disadvantage in this! He owns this really big theater too, so he might even just take one look at me and decide that I'm not good enough!'_

Needless to say, these thoughts didn't help, and it showed. The more Meena's anxiety rose, the more she began to hyperventilate and hold her head in a panic, attracting all of the back-liners' attention.

"Hey hey hey hey! Calm down Meena, it's alright!" Meena felt a gentle paw on her shoulder. Looking back Jude put on a worrying look, which brought her slight comfort, but not enough to stop her unhealthy breathing. "It's okay Meena, it's okay! just"-

"Take some deep breaths dear." The pig behind the two spoke in a motherly tone. She stepped a little closer to the two and waved her hoof up and down in a slow, steady pattern. Each time her arm rose, she breathed in, and the opposite happened when she lowered it. "Come on now, just like this." The elephant willingly followed along with the pig's instructions; breathing in for a count of three, then exhaling for a count of four. The woman had her hoof rise and fall whenever she breathed in or out, helping the elephant along. Eventually, after about a minute or so, the woman's advice proved successful, and Meena's breathing was back to normal.

"I deal with this sort of stress lots of times back home. Whenever I get overwhelmed by all my little rascals, I always just close my eyes and take some deep breaths to calm me down. Sometimes, you just need to stop and take a moment for yourself. And that is perfectly okay." The woman rummaged around in her short, yellow purse of her's then pulled out a wrapped up stick of gum to offer it to Meena. Despite it being too small for her to chew whatsoever, he gratefully accepted it, saying "Thank you ma'am." in a gentle tone. Her friend right next to her made a mental note of the woman and made sure to remember her kindness.

"Call me Rosita dear," Rosita said, "and it's no problem at all."

About 45 minutes pass by, and the back-liners have officially gotten bored. Meena had gotten slightly tired of hearing Seea for the 20th time, and it only reminded her of the impending pressure, so she swapped through some other songs she had and tried to focus on those to calm herself down. Jude, using the money the Inis had given them, had gotten a small bucket of glazed doughnut holes from Joe's Coffee (which was only a few blocks away) for both themselves and some people nearby in line. Rosita only accepted one, not wanting to be rude and refuse while also not wanting to indulge on the sweets, and the gorilla in front (who introduced himself as Johnny) refused, seeing it as rude to take some of their food. They offered none to the mouse, who pretended not to care but still seemed annoyed that they got food while he didn't.

But after another 10 minutes, something finally happened to quench their boredom. A Channel 9 news van pulled up to the scene, with a cameraman cat hopping out of the side, following an anchorman weiner dog. They announced to everyone that they would be showing the competition live on Channel 9, and also would interview the contestants in line. The animals in line clambered to get into the shot before the camera even started to roll, but the back-liners (who were now in front of a brand new group of animals which took their title) didn't bother with it, thinking that they would just be glossed over. The news duo then proceeded to interview some of the contestants waiting in line, like a very eager hippo up a couple ways in front of them saying that he was "Born with the gift to SING!"

Eventually, the anchorman reached where the friend duo were standing, and by some miracle, they had chosen to interview Jude. They shrunk back at first, but after looking at their friend nearby, a grin appeared on the feline's face.

"Now, how are you feeling about being able to show off your talent to the world? We'd assume that it would be stressful, since $100,000 are on the line here." The anchorman asked, pointing the microphone to the jaguar. Other animals around them (specifically the mouse) became jealous with Jude, since they were chosen out of everybody else. The yellow and black spotted animal chuckled, and leaned into the mic.

"Sir, I'm sorry, you are mistaken. I'm not here to sing." Jude said in a boasty type of tone, catching the news duo off guard and convincing the dog to push the microphone closer. "No, what I'm here for is to support my best bud and singing sensation, Meena Ini!" Jude stepped to the side and thrusted out their arms to behold their best friend as if she was some sort of legend! Other contestants had mixed reactions; some seemed interested at what she could do while others rolled their eyes and continued to wait and watch. Meena hid herself behind her large ears again, daring to not face the camera. But seeing as how they directed the camera to her anyways, she meekly waved to the camera with a shy smile on her face. Johnny laughed a little in front of them from Jude's enthusiasm.

"Let me tell you. This girl right here," they put a paw around Meena's back, "we've been friends since kids, and I have HEARD the pipes this girl has! She already has this contest in the bag! So I don't even care about the money, as long as I can help this girl through today, that will be a win for me Bob!" The dog and cameraman cat chuckled from Jude's over-confidence in their friend, despite getting his name wrong, and said into the mic "Well, you sure have quite the enthusiasm!"

"Yeah, well too bad that it won't getya anywhere." Jude groaned from the familiar sounding voice from down below. The group around him groaned and turned to the egomaniac, deciding to humor him and listen to what he was going to say. The news casting duo directed their attention to the red-clothed mouse next to them and crouched down to give him the mic.

"And what is your name sir?"

"Name's Mike, last name doesn't matter. Now all of you chumps, whether you're in line now or not, you better listen up!" Mike straightened his clothes and spoke into the mic.

"Now I'm sure you're gonna get some more animals in this line like spots over here," he jerked a thumb to Jude, "where they say things like "Oh it's not winning it's the taking part that counts!"" Mike had went into a high pitched voice and waved his arms, attempting to mimic Jude and their enthusiasm. The jaguar growled, showing a bit of their pointed teeth, but Mike paid them no mind.

"Yeah yeah, not me pal I'm here to win." Mike lifted up the orange promotion flyer and pointed to the big, bold $100,000 on the front. "That prize? It's mine! Spots may say that Dumbo over there is the best singer here, but that's only because they haven't heard my talent yet! When those people hear me on the stage they'll be givin' that prize right to me, and then I'll drive on out of here before the competition even begins! Oh and don't even try to ask me for an example, I gotta save my pipes for the main event."

Eventually, the cameraman yanks his attention away from the mouse and moves on to people farther down the line. Jude glares at the mouse, obviously annoyed by his ego. But with said monster being fed enough camera time, Mike just adjusts his suit and gives the group ahead of him a " _What? Does it look like I care?_ " type of expression.

One more hour passes, and the group finally gets into the building. Meena was using Rosita's deep breathing techniques to calm herself down while chewing on the minty gum, which had a very disappointing effect due to its size. Jude had just thrown away the tub of doughnut holes and hopped back into line, doing their best to comfort the timid teenager. The two had filled out a form together listing their name, home, and song they would be singing on stage for the auditions. Meena mainly filled it out herself, but Jude added in on the bottom "Friend also here for moral support, not competing." As they filled out the form, the loud noise of an amp being turned on rang throughout the building, hurting Jude, Meena and several other animals' ears. Deciding to investigate, Jude sneaked up to one of the doors leading into the lower seating section and peeked through, letting Meena save their spot.

They found the front stage occupied by the same porcupine duo from the bus, rocking out a terrible, screeching song on their guitars together that caused the jaguar's ears to shrink backwards. It mainly seemed to Jude that their "music" was like random notes on the guitar grouped with loud yelling, and no singing whatsoever. Although at one point, the female rocker did a personal yell while the other guitars went silent, which sounded pretty impressive. Jude could also see some animals sitting in the front listening and trying to protect their ears from the screeching. They assumed that they were the ones Meena would be singing to, but they were so small that they were under the backside of the seat, and couldn't be made out at all. So for both their sake and the rest of the line's, Jude closed the door and continued with the line. Johnny complimented on how the girl on stage sounded, saying that it "had some good feeling put into it." Nobody could deny that.

Then finally, after 18 more minutes of waiting, the group all managed to get to the front of the line on stage right. Everybody started to get themselves prepared: Johnny giving himself some pep-talk while pacing back and forth and making certain hand movements. Rosita hummed to herself of Firework (which Meena assumed what she would be singing). Mike being cocky and acting laid back spewed rude comments while watching the contestants on stage. Meena tried to use Rosita's deep breathing again, and to her relief it was slowly but surely working. The mint gum that she was chewing on had lost its flavor after all this time, so she spat it out in a waste basket nearby.

Johnny was called to the stage first and began to sing "Stay With Me" by Dam Smith, which the jaguar was not expecting based on his clothing. Partnered with the piano, the gorilla sang all of his lines fluently while closing his eyes to focus less on the animals watching and more on his own voice. When the song was about to come to a close and Johnny showed his ability to masterfully hit the high notes, Jude and the the rest of the oncoming contestants had to admit that he was pretty good.

' _But not as good as Meena will be!'_ they thought. She turned to their friend who, while having calmed down significantly since the start of the line, was becoming stressed once again. So taking one last chance to ensure Meena's victory, they approached her one last time and tried to calm her down.

"C'mon girl, look at me." Jude placed their hands on Meena's shoulders as she started to grasp her own palms tightly together.

"Listen Meena, when we get up on that stage, just close your eyes and just breathe. I'm going to be right next to you the whole time, alright? So don't worry, just take however much time you need."

"Actually could you not?" Mike butted in rudely, pointing at his miniature watch. "I have a certain schedule to keep, got some perfoming to do tonight. I'd like to win this competition already and get this over with"

"Oh shut up you!" The Jaguar hissed and flicked their tail above Mike's head, brushing by it and sending the mouse's hat flying off in the other direction. After failing to snatch it out of the air, Mike gave a glare to the two and then stomped off to go find his hat. Soon after that, Jude went back to comforting Meena, who was now instead watching Johnny sing. The look on her face showed that she was stressed after hearing how well and fluent Johnny was able to sing his song, but before Jude could say anything, Johnny jogged off of the stage back where he came from.

' _My turn_!' All of the deep breathing techniques Meena had been doing before was thrown out of the window.

An old, strained voice in the audience called Meena's name and told her to come onto the stage. The gorilla gave the two reassuring finger guns and went to go wait with the rest of the contestants. They did not work. Jude put a paw on Meena's back to help them out of the side-stage and onto the main floor, slightly nudging her each step of the way. The two both went slow, Jude keeping a good pace to match their friend's. The entire time they walked, Jude kept the attention directed on them to calm the teenager down, but they weren't watching where they were going and accidentally tipped over the microphone. Meena hastily tried to pick it back up, apologizing to a koala in a blue and white suit and his lizard assistant dressed in a green, flowery dress. Both friends assumed that the koala was Buster Moon based on his suit, but couldn't figure out who exactly the lizard was.

"Hey, it's alright, you know? It's alright!" Buster gave casual encouragement with an optimistic smile, as did the lizard next to him. A bit of Meena's anxiety vanished when seeing how friendly the two were, but not enough to completely calm her down. The assistant next to him flipped through a jumble of papers and then plucked one out of the stack, handing it to the koala.

"Let's see here…" Buster read the information to himself, stopping a few times to comment on a couple details. "Ah, " _Chandelier_ " by Seea! That's a good sign, I haven't heard that one yet today!" After reaching the bottom in a matter of seconds, he looked up from the paper and right at Jude, pointing a pen at them.

"And you said on here that, erm," the koala skimmed through what the two assumed to be their form, "ah, just some friendly support, correct?"

"Yes sir. Meena, sometimes freezes up on stage, so I'm just here to help her out to keep her calm!" The jaguar spoke with a chipper attitude. Meena seemed slightly embarrassed when her friend said that and hid behind her ears, but Buster gave a response that she was not expecting.

"Ah, well then. Don't worry Meena, this is very natural for many different people." Buster explained in a calming tone. "We've already had a couple good animals up there decide last second they didn't want to compete because they couldn't take the pressure. You don't have to feel ashamed about bringing along a friend, the pressure gets to even the best of us at times" Meena felt slightly reassured by the kind koala's words, and just to be sure, Jude gave a friendly pat on her back. Meena thought she was ready at that point.

She was wrong.

"Now, take it away Meena!"

The song Meena had chosen began to play on nearby speakers as soon as the owner finished their sentence. The song skipped the usual intro of silence she usually heard from all of the times she listened to it on her personal playlist. This threw her off greatly, as she was used to the seconds of silence that helped her collect her thoughts. Not knowing what to do first, Meena adjusted the Microphone stand to fit her height, then took a deep breath. She knew the lyrics, she knew the pacing, and she knew how she would deliver it. All she had to do was let it out of her system.

But it wouldn't come out. Meena knew what to do, but the lyrics seemed to be yanked and held captive in her throat. Her head became tense and her breath started to speed up again while she stared blankly at the mic. The contestants waiting on the side (save for Rosita) silently relished her fear, thinking that they would have a better chance Jude recognized their friend's panic, and frantically tried to bring her back to reality.

"Come on Meena, snap out of it. I'm here Meena, I'm right here." Jude put her paws on the elephant's arm, but she did not look back to her friend. Meena started to hyperventilate once again; her breaths becoming faster and faster with each passing beat of the song. Buster looked from his assistant then back to the two, while a concerned expression formed on his face.

"Um, are you okay Meena? Do you… do you want to start over?" Meena still didn't answer. Inside her mind, fear once again began to engulf her and her head reflexively began to shake back and forth. As the chorus kicked in, she began to back away from the microphone and everybody else, still stuck in her anxiety-produced trance. But after the music was cut off so the elephant could breathe, one voice finally snapped her out of her trance.

"Alright, enough of that! That's quite enough of that!" Mike the mouse shoved against the elephant's foot, finally bringing Meena back to reality. Jude looked down to see the rat yet again and their teeth began to grind against one another. They were about to tell Mike again to shove off, but then Meena willingly allowed herself to be shoved along at her shoe. Jude watched in awe as Mike bullied Meena into getting off of the main stage, and exit to the left.

"Off the stage Helga. C'mon you're useless. Thanks." Mike waved the elephant off as if he were sending off some criminal that he had just caught to the jail. As Meena looked back at the mouse, everyone could see that tears were beginning to form in her eyes. She pulled her hood over her head and tugged on the strings, frustrated with their own inability to not be scared by the spotlight. In her mind, she thought 'I should have known that this wouldn't work.' Buster and the lizard looked to Meena with a somber expression, disappointed that they wouldn't be able to hear her sing. But the feline back on stage felt different, and their paw began to twitch and glare at the mouse. He looked up to them as if expecting them to stomp off of the stage or give them a rude gesture, but was instead met with a fang-filled expression.

Jude felt something spark inside of them; a tiny little spark of anger that grew into a giant bonfire of rage. Jude gave a death glare at the mouse and let out a low snarl. Seemingly unphased, Mike just looked up to the jaguar and politely asked them in his own special way to leave.

"What? You want a-a freaking cookie or something? You and your friend, get lost!" Jude let out a growl and slowly stalked towards Mike, who was beginning to show signs of fear. Buster's eyes began to grow as he slowly put down the paper and got up from his seat, running up the stage while keeping his eyes on the jaguar. Meena turned around and let a piercing gasp pass through her lips when she saw Jude letting out their claws. They immediately knew what was happening and knew that something was wrong.

The enraged Jaguar sprinted at the egomaniac and in a flash, pinched the little, fragile mouse by the collar with its claws and lifted it up high all the way until they could see eye to eye. Mike lost all of his composure and started flailing around his arms like a panicked little child, screaming at Jude to let him down in a very cracking, whimpering voice. Buster ran up on the stage and tried to cam the savage animal down, but it didn't listen.

"You, will NOT ruin this moment for her!" Jude's voice sounded more low and menacing from its previously cheerful counterpart. It's lip curled up to show more of the menacing fangs, and everyone could see Mike's eyes widen larger than the Ini's porcelain plates. "She's been gathering up all the courage she could get all day to come here, and she is NOT going to be stopped by a pip-squeak like YOU!" Meena ran onto the stage and tried to make her friend stop, but her words couldn't make any impact on the scene unfolding. The fear inside of her brain quadroupled in size, but it pushed her forwards instead of holding her back.

"H-hey, come on pal, j-just put me back down! I-I'll"- Any previous sign of Mike's calm demeanor had completely vanished, and what was left was a crying, stuttering little child. The other contestants peeked from the doors and sides and watched in astonishment at what they assumed to be the jaguar's true nature. Jude put one of its pointed claws to the mouse's chin, making Mike go into a beetle position and let out a high pitched yelp.

"You will LET her sing her angel voice and you **WILL** let her have her moment, **OR ELSE! AND IF YOU DON'T THEN YOU WON'T EVER BE ABLE TO INSULT ANYONE EVER AGAIN!** ** _GOT IT?!_** "

"JUDE STOP IT!" Meena screamed at the top of her lungs and shoved her friend back to reality. Jude suddenly stood straight back up, and their lip slid back down to hide their fangs. The jaguar looked around, but the more they saw, the more shocked they became. Mike was scared to death in their own claws, Buster looked like he was trying to handle a psycho before it went on a rampage, some other contestants were staring at them terrified, but the worst of all for the jaguar was that Meena was on the verge of tears. Jude looked down at their clawed hands and jumped back from shock, retracting them before any more harm could be done.

With the claws retracted, Mike fell back onto the stage and ran away from his attacker. He sprinted back stage right to hide with the rest of the contestants, scampering to escape certain death in his eyes. Back on the stage,Jude put both of their clawless paws to their head in shock. The other animals in the room could hear them quietly mutter to themself "Nononononononono" while backing away from everybody. Their mind was in a fully blown meltdown, not being able to process anything else except for what had just happened. Before anybody else tried to do or say something, Meena grabbed Jude's arm and started to exit stage left, not saying a word.

"W-wait, what about"-

"Let's go Jude." Meena's voice was very shaky, but the command was clear. Without arguing or debate, the jaguar compiled, and let the elephant drag them out of the building. Then without looking back, she closed the door behind them with a mighty slam.


	3. Tone it Down

**Take Two**

The two animals walked out of the theatre, with the looks of shame on both of their faces. In their mind, Jude hit themself constantly, screaming at them for how she lost control. ' _You blew it! You blew it for her and it's all your fault!'_ they heard from themselves. Jude retracted their claws as far as they could into their paws, in hopes of it being a good enough punishment for their actions.

Jude wanted to talk to their friend, and apologize for what they almost did to the mouse-Mike-on stage. They weren't going to do anything, they know they didn't! At least, that's what Jude believed. Bits of the past started to appear in their mind as they walked away from Moon Theatre, as the animals line wondered what happened. One of the first days the two met, when they were just little kids in Elementary school. ' _And about four week after…'_

The two tikes were talking on the playground together during a lunch recess. It just seemed like a normal day two the two of them, and Jude really wanted to play with Meena after school was over! But some other kids came up to them; Baboons. They all ran past the two and swiped their lunch boxes from them before they even knew what was going on. They had tried to recover their lost meals, but the baboons were too fast for them. No other child or adult came to their aid. Then, as the two finally gave up, the baboons mocked Meena for how heavy she was, and how she didn't need to eat because of how fat she was. Those bullies made a mistake that day; they made Meena cry.

Jude blacked out, and when they finally came to their senses, they were in their dad's car, watching the bullies being carted off to the hospital.

The two stayed friends, but it took some time before they saw each other again. Jude got a scolding from their parents, and was suspended from school for a couple months. They hated how the other kids went quiet when they walked into the classroom, how the other kids were scared to get too close, how the other kids ran away. Meena was scared as well, but she still understood why they acted that way. She didn't support what Jude did, but she at least got why they did that. It took a couple more months, but the two were friends once again, and Jude tried to keep their rage in check from that point onwards. It didn't always work, but they at least didn't send anybody to the emergency room.

But they were *this* close to repeating their actions again. If Meena wasn't there to snap them out of their rage mode, things could have gotten ugly. If Jude had went berserk on stage like they did back on the playground, they would never forgive themself or face Meena every again. So while they kept retracting the sharp claws as far as they could go, the two walked in silence.

"L-let's get some lunch." Meena said, breaking the silence. Jude jumped slightly from her offer, but willingly nodded, still staying silent. They walked into a diner that wasn't too far from the Moon Theatre, which wasn't too crowded since everybody was waiting in line instead of eating here. The friends sat down at a booth, and after Jude said that they were going to go to the bathroom, they left Meena alone to look at the menu.

Meena wondered why she even decided to eat here. ' _I'm not even that hungry.'_ She thought as her stomach grumbled. With the time of solitude she had, her mind raced to the events of the Theatre. The _moment_ she saw Jude's claws come out, she knew what was coming. It was a while since Meena saw her friend get that angry; a couple months actually. But to the extent where they would bring out the claws? That was very rare. The only times that happened was ' _When somebody made me upset.'_

Meena has seen the pattern before: If she was ever upset or crying because of what somebody did, Jude would go crazy. She never understood WHY Jude went to such big lengths to do those things. She assumed it was to make her happy by stopping the bullies, but that just led to the opposite effect. Ever since the incident from Elementary, Meena goes into a sort of shock whenever she sees Jude's claws. Those terrible memories of the baboons and the jaguar never sat well with her when they came up. But that was what her mind decided to switch to anyways!

After that horrifying day, Meena tried to keep her distance from Jude; which was relatively easy since they got suspended for a couple months. She didn't wave whenever the two saw each other, never said "hi" or even started a conversation when they met up outside of school. Her parents understood as well; she just wanted some time to recover away from her new friend.

But being alone in school didn't help at all. The day after Jude's rage, the effects rippled throughout the school. To the outsider, it seemed perfectly fine! Nobody would pick on her like they used to; she was untouchable! The problem was just THAT though; she was untouchable! Not a single kid dared to even talk to her, because they felt that if they accidentally did something to her, they would end up on Jude's hit list. After seeing how strong her wanting to stay away from Jude was, the jaguar became more retracted when it came to school than ever. It took some time, but the two eventually became friends again as long as Jude didn't rage anymore. And they certainly did try!

But seeing those actions again today brought down any and all confidence left in her body to go on with auditions. All day, she had been preparing to try and sing her song in front of some sort of large crowd! But she couldn't even muster up the courage when facing a koala and a lizard. The elephant held her face in her palms as Jude walked back from the bathrooms. They sat down and still sat in silence as they ordered their meals and ate their food (For Meena, a salad and for Jude, a black bean burger). But having enough with the silence, Jude put their meal down on the plate and spoke.

"Meena, can you just talk to me? Please?" Jude said with honest sincerity. "I just-I know what I did. But I just want to talk." Meena put down her fork as she was about to eat another lettuce leaf.

"Jude, you can't-y-you have to stop"-

"I know I know!" Jude cut in with guilt. "I just wanted to let you do you thing! If that stupid mouse didn't say anything"-

"Just stop!" The elephant slammed on the table, causing it to shake and crack slightly underneath. Some cooks and servers looked from their posts to see what was going on. Jude raised their hands up in defence.

"I-I knew what you were trying to do; I knew you were just trying to help me. But… It was too much. You went too far and.. And you almost hurt somebody!" Meena grasped her shoulders and looked away in shame while hiding behind her large ears. Then mumbling under her breath, Jude could hear her whimper "I just want to go home."

"Meena wait." Jude picked up before Meena could say anything else. The elephant did nothing, and showed more of her shoulder to her friend. "Meena…" Jude got up on their seat and grabbed their friend by her arm. "Listen to me, please!"

"Hey hey hey! Off the seat!" A nearby turtle janitor yelled. "Do you have any idea how long it takes to clean those things?!"

"Sorry! Sorry." Jude hopped off of the booth bench, but still held onto their friend's hand. Holding it with both paws, she looked at Meena directly in the eyes.

"Meena, it was my fault for everything at the auditions. I know that it was my fault that things didn't go right and I'm sorry. But you shouldn't give up because of my mistakes!" The elephant pulled back her ears slightly to face her friend. "You came here because it was _your_ time to shine, not mine. I just want to make sure that you get happy here and have fun."

Meena looked at her friend's paws on her hand, seeming to get comfortable by it. But she turned away again a second later.

"Jude, y-you saw how I froze up there. I was terrible, I couldn't even sing the song that we chose!" Jude, hearing their friend's argument, pulled back a paw and pondered for a second on what to do. After hearing a slight "Hmmmm," the elephant heard her friend snap their fingers and say "Hallelujah!"

Meena's expression turned from guilty to a confused one. She turned her head to face the jaguar, whose face was glowing like a star. "Wh-what?" The elephant asked. Jude pulled their arms away and started to pace slightly back and forth with some hand gestures.

"You know, "Hallelujah"! By Sheepard Cohen! We've been thinking about this whole thing wrong, we chose the wrong song!" Jude stopped and turned to their friend again. "When we were picking out different songs, we were looking for one that would show off your singing the best. But you barely even listened to the song, and that's why you had to listen to it on repeat while we were waiting the whole time! But that song; You know the entire freaking thing by memory! It's like, your favorite song, it'll be perfect for you!"

"Bu-but what If I freeze up again? I'll just…" Jude realized really quick that they were going a little overboard, and toned down their excitement a little. So, kneeling down to Meena's eye level, they put a paw on her shoulder, causing the two to finally look at each other again from eye to eye.

"Meena, I promise that I'll be there this time. I'll make sure that this time, I'll give you the proper support you need." Jude said with absolute honesty. The elephant pondered for a moment, thinking for a moment that it would feel better if she just went home and hopped back into her bed. But seeing how much Jude wanted to support her, it filled Meena with a bit of the hope and courage that she was lacking. She teared up a little, but then pulled Jude into a tight, warm hug.

"Thank you Jude." The jaguar paused for a moment, then hugged back.

"No problem Meena."

"Okay, now I'm not even lying." The wolf cashier by the front door was watching the two talk, resting her cheek on her hands with a childish grin. "That, was adorable."

After finishing their meals and paying up the money needed to the cashier (who wished the elephant some good luck), the two friends walked back to Moon Theatre for their second shot. Much to their sanity, the line had shortened while they were making amends to both each other and their stomachs. But since Meena had already filled out her form, they decided to wait in the lobby for their chance to talk to the Theatre's koala. That, however, wouldn't be for about another hour later! In the meantime, they listened to other performers and made certain comments about the each of them. Meena was showing signs of stress again, but Jude made sure to be right next to her and help calm Meena down, which was greatly appreciated.

So then after their long, long wait session, the final song cut off. The performer exited stage left, and then the two judges let out a long, relieved sigh from (seemingly) finishing all of the auditions. Meena and Jude looked at each other, and then pushed the doors to the audience seating open with an echoing _CLICK_ throughout the room.

"Mr. Moon?" Meena spoke up from across the seating. The two saw the koala's large, fluffy ears perk up, then he peered around his seat to face them. His expression was… mixed. He seemed surprised to see Meena return and possibly even excited to hear her voice. But the sight of Jude made him anxious; Jude couldn't blame him for that.

"Oh, you're back!" Buster said, then told his lizard assistant that the two had returned. Jude and Meena walked up to the owner of the theatre; this time Jude getting nervous to what he'd say to them. The jaguar took a deep breath to prepare for what the koala would have to say.

When they reached the front row seating, everyone stayed quiet for a moment or two. Meena nudged her friend, who then just blurted out their apology.

"I'm really sorry for what I did earlier! I couldn't control myself and I promise it won't happen again, just please give my friend another chance!"

"Now now, settle down!" The owner stepped up onto the armrest of his chair to get as high as he could to talk to Jude directly. The lizard woman next to him waved at Meena, and she waved back.

"First, while I do appreciate you coming back to apologize, I'm not the one you should be saying that to." Jude didn't seem to get it at first, but when Buster gestured to backstage, they understood. The koala nodded. "He should be somewhere with the rest of the contestants if you want to go now. And secondly?" He turned to face the big elephant.

"They said you wanted to try again?" Buster questioned, seeming intrigued. To make sure that she didn't stutter or back out, Jude put a gentle paw on her back. Meena nodded, responding to the owner "Y-yes sir. If, if that's alright with you though. Jude and I realized that we might have chosen the wrong song, s-so"-

"Don't worry! It's fine, that's perfectly fine." The koala said comfortingly. "Besides, we've made it through all of the contestants, what's one more? Right Miss Crawley?" Buster turned around to see the lizard's answer, which was a generous head nod yes.

"Yes mister Moon, I would very much like to hear her song. She seems like a nice child, so she must have a nice voice!" Miss Crawley answered with her old, shaky voice. Meena was flattered, and let out a quiet "thanks." Buster turned back around to face the two friends.

"Okay, I'll let you two do your thing. But, Jude right?" He pointed to the jaguar, who was mainly trying to stay quiet for this whole thing and let the three talk. They nodded, grasping their shoulder out of impulse.

"If by some chance Meena can't get into the show, can you promise not to do, whatever it was you did earlier? I don't want any violence in my theatre." Jude turned away a little more, feeling guilty after he reminded them about their outburst. But the jaguar nodded in understanding. The koala smiled, and clapped his hands together optimistically.

"Alright then! Whenever you two are ready, you can step onto the stage and start!" Mr. Moon said enthusiastically, hopping back down into his seat like a small child. The two friends did just that; they walked onto the stage and back to where they were just a mere hour and a half ago. As they walked, Jude pulled up an instrumental version of "Hallelujah" on their phone. But as they got closer to the microphone, Jude could hear Meena do Rosita's deep breathing technique again. They tried to think of some way to get their friend to calm down; then it hit them! So with their free paw, Jude got Meena's attention by tapping their shoulder.

"Hey Meena, remember the karaoke machine from back home?" The elephant nodded, not fully understanding.

"This is just like that, there's nothing different between the two. Here, try closing your eyes." The elephant did as she was told, and Jude kept rolling along with it.

"Here's the microphone, it may not have a chord, but it connects right to the machine. This is no different from what we do back at home." Meena was starting to understand where Jude was going with this. Both this and the karaoke machine from back home had things like it. They both had microphones, they both played songs, and sometimes the two would sing in front of an audience. Granted, the difference between that last part was that the audience size would be much greater if she continued on with it. If she continued with this, the entire theatre would be filled with seats, with everyone staring right at her and listening to _her_ sing.

But Meena opened her eyes, and just saw Buster Moon and Miss Crawley in the audience, who were waiting patiently in their seats for her to begin. Then she looked to Jude for comfort, and realized something else. ' _Three listeners, three people in the audience._ ' It was just like singing to her family back at home, her Mom, Grandpa and Grandma. It was different in little ways, but it was also the exact same! Jude was right, this _WAS_ just like singing back at home!

"Alright, are you ready Meena?" Jude asked, looking at their friend in the eyes. With one final deep breath and Jude's knowledge in mind, Meena nodded. So Jude went back to their phone, turned up the volume as loud as possible, then pressed play. The calming tune of the song's instruments washed away any fears she had about herself, and she felt her heart drum to the beat. _Dum, dum dum, dum, dum dum._ With one final inhale, Meena closed her eyes and began to sing to her audience.

" _Now I've heard there was a secret chord, that David played and it pleased the lord._

 _But you don't really care for music, do you?"_

Jude could feel their friend sing the lyrics with absolute flow; much different from the disaster earlier. Not a single stutter or quiet whisper came from the first verse, and when they heard the perfection, Jude knew that their friend had this in the bag. The jaguar looked to the two judges in the chairs, who were already intrigued by Meena's voice. Miss Crawley quietly clapped her hands together, while Buster had his pen and paper ready for notes. As the song progressed more and more, Jude could see their intrigue transfer into pure awe from the elephant's vocal chords.

" _There's a blaze of light in every word,_

 _It doesn't maaaater what you've heard,_

 _The holy or the broken Hallelujah!"_

Meena kept her eyes shut and continued to sing her favorite song. What Jude had said earlier was true: she knew the entire song by heart. Whenever she or somebody in her family felt sad, Meena sang their troubles away with this song, and all was well. Her Grandma even said that she could be even better than the one who originally sang it, and Jude agreed with them 100%! From the left of the stage, some of the contestants peered around the curtain to see who was singing now. Jude could see Johnny and Rosita watch Meena sing her heart out, and join Buster and Crawley in their level of awe.

" _I did my best, it wasn't much._

 _I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch,_

 _I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you."_

Jude realized that one of her best parts was coming up, and they tapped their feet in anticipation.

" _And even though it all went wrong,_

 _I'll stand before the Lord of Song!_

 _With nothing on my tongue but HAAAllELUJAH!"_

The jaguar pumped their fists in the air as Meena put her effort into that last word. Buster had put down his pen and paper in order to fully listen to Meena's astonishing performance. But that wasn't it yet, oh no. Jude's favorite part was going to happen any second now.

" _HallelujAAAAH!_

 _HAAAAlelujaaah!_

 _Halleluujaaah,_

 _Halleluuuu-_

 _Halleluuuuuujaaa."_

The last of the instruments faded away with the final piano chord, and the song came to an end. Meena opened her eyes and regulated her breathing; tuckered out from her over the top singing. She carefully put the microphone back down on the stand, then looked at Mr. Moon for approval. For twelve long seconds, the koala sat in his chair, nothing but agape. And then he clapped. It started slow, but with every clap, more speed and emphasis was put into his cheer. Miss Crawley did the same, but not with too much effort as Mr. Moon did.

Meena smiled, but then stumbled backwards from the intense hug that Jude gave her. Both of the two friends giggled, then laughed with each other on stage. Jude kept saying "You did it! I knew you could do it girl!" and that just made Meena laugh even more! Some of the observers from backstage looked at the two, seeing promising competition and fantastic effort! Even they couldn't help clapping with the koala!

"Meena, let me just tell you something." Mr. Moon said as he picked up his pen and scribbled some notes down on Meena's form. The two stopped their laughing, but couldn't stifle down any giggles that they got. Miss Crawley peered over Moon's writings as he both underlined and circled a line on the elephant's contestant form. Then when he was done, he looked back up at the two once more.

"That was the best singing I've heard all day."

That night, Jude and the Inis all celebrated together over Meena's successful entry into the competition.


	4. Let's Get to Work

**Let's Get to Work**

The Inis all rejoiced when the two came back with the good news! The three had all joined her in a group hug, filled with "Congratulations" and "I knew you had it in you!"s and many, many kisses! They also gave one to Jude, but made sure to be a little more gentle with them since they were a little more fragile. So they all celebrated with leftover cake and muffin baking! Everyone helped out to make a huge batch of Grandma's specialty muffins, and when Jude asked who they were all for, Grandma responded with "Why for all of your new friends of course! You have to make a good first impression!" Jude chuckled, then went back to their work, a little quieter than before.

Jude once again spent the night with their elephant friend, wanting to be right next to her to support her through practices. The Ini family greatly appreciated Jude's work at practices, and was happy to hear that Jude would help her even more! So just for them, they had gotten the guest mattress a makeover, with better pillows and blankets for them as appreciation. They gave the family their "Thank Yous", and went off to bed with their friend. After talking about how they had a long week ahead of them, the two friends drifted off into sleep.

The next morning was about the same as the first; The two got up bright and early, grabbed the muffins and said their goodbyes, then hopped onto the bus downtown to the Moon Theater. That day, there was much less animals coming up onto the bus than the day before, which made sense since auditions were already over. However, they did find some familiar faces from before. Ash the porcupine had stepped up to the bus by herself that day with nothing but her sticker filled guitar case and a laid back exterior. When Meena saw her fellow contestant walk through the isle of seats, she waved hi and offered one of the seats next to the two, and Ash accepted!

"Where's your friend?" Meena asked, to which she got an annoyed scoff in response.

"Lance? Yeah, he decided not to come along with me. The koala did say that only I got in after all."

"But Jude is coming with me," she gestured to her jaguar friend, who was zoning out while looking at the passing houses, "and they aren't in the show. They just wanted to come with me to practices."

"Well, Lance decided that he had better things to do instead." the porcupine rolled her eyes, remembering her boyfriend's words from the night before. "He said he had to write songs or something, and also said that he didn't want to come and support a "Sell-out."' There was silence as Meena stopped to process Ash's words for a moment.

"A sell-out? Why would he call you that?" The elephant asked, genuinely curious. Ash sat up and started to make gestures with her arms, but stopped while she stared down at them.

"It's just… Ugh." Ash groaned, throwing down her arms. "It's complicated. I don't wanna talk about it." She ran her hand through her quills, while some had gotten stuck in the cushion behind her. Meena said "oh." and looked away, stopping the conversation to respect the porcupine's privacy. After a moment, she opened up the box of muffins, offering one to Ash. "Muffin?"

Ash took a quick glance at the muffin box, then waved it off, saying "Nah, not hungry. I just had breakfast." Meena respected her again and closed the lid as the bus slowed down to a stop once again. This time, among certain other animals, Rosita hopped back on the bus cheerfully and sat down in her seat from yesterday (Which was right next to Ash's window seat). It was only when she sat down when she noticed her fellow friends from yesterday and waved hello.

"Hi Rosita!" Meena cheerfully responded. When they heard her name, Jude snapped out of their dissociation and finally noticed the two familiar faces. The jaguar adjusted themselves in their seat and greeted the pig as well with a "Hey!"

"Hello there!" Rosita noticed the large muffin box Meena had, and then asked "What's in the box?"

"Muffins! Jude and I made some last night to give out today, do you want any?" The elephant opened the box to show Rosita her Grandma's muffins. Rosita looked at them with temptation at how delicious they looked, and how her stomach started to grumble. But she took it back and looked away, shaking her head in shame.

"No, no, I shouldn't really." the two friends looked slightly disappointed at how Rosita refused their treats from last night. But, playfully teasing, Jude whined to her "Aww, why noooot?"

"Well, um," Rosita lightly clasped her hands together and started tapping her fingertips, "I just thought that, with the competition and all, I should maybe go on a diet? I thought I would have to perform and all, you know?" Jude's playful teasing look began to morph into a concerned one, and they started to eye the pig up and down. "I guess I just didn't want people to think"-

"You think you're fat." Jude blatantly said. The three women's heads snapped to Jude, astonished at their clear cut statement. They looked at Rosita with a sort of detective's eye, with their arms pressing down on their knees to hold themselves up. The jaguar didn't even seem remotely concerned at how that might come back to bite them.

"Jude!" Meena loudly whispered, giving them a knock on their arm to scold them. But the jaguar went unfazed, and kept staring at the pig. Rosita's cheeks flushed red from how Jude seemed to read her mind so quickly, and Ash was just amazed at how Jude just _said_ that to her, without any sort of stutter or stall. So she got up fully on the seat and watched the show unfold.

"Well, I-I wouldn't really say that I'm fat, I just, think I could get into better shape for"-

"Your stomach is growling really loud, so I don't think you ate any breakfast." Jude pointed to Rosita's stomach, making her cheeks get a little more red. "Yet you didn't take the muffin. And you said yesterday that you used the deep breathing thing to help with stress and anxiety. Plus, you're doing that thing with your hands." They moved their finger to her hands, which abruptly stopped tapping their fingertips when Jude pointed them out.

"So you think that you're fat, so you even decided to skip breakfast to try and cut some weight off"-

"Jude that's enough." Meena interrupted her friend sternly. Jude put their paws up, signaling that they were done. Rosita rubbed her shoulder and her cheeks got a little more red, getting more embarrassed by how obvious she was to the jaguar. They had read her like an open book! Meanwhile, Ash was just sitting back and waiting for things to get good, staying silent to not get herself involved with this. So after Jude had called her out on her lies, Rosita took a heavy sigh.

"Y-yes, I guess I do think I'm a little, plump. I guess with how I'll be performing in front of a crowd, I'd try to, slim down a little?" Rosita shyly admitted, shrugging with a nervous smile. "I just didn't want people to think of me badly. And I thought that maybe if I looked better, they might like me more."

"Rosita." Jude began, clapping their hands together to get everyone's attention. "There's a fine line between going on a diet and starving yourself, even you should know that. You still need to eat. Besides, I know a bunch of people that would KILL for your body type!" Jude but extra emphasis on the "kill". Rosita decided to attempt to look at the jaguar in the eyes, and once she did, she was met with a determined smile. "You aren't fat Rosita, so don't go starving yourself just because you think so."

Jude swiftly opened the muffin box, grabbed one of the muffins by the bottom wrappings, and tossed it to Rosita. WIth her motherly reflexes, she managed to catch it before it fell to the ground and got spoiled. Although, a few of the crumbs fell into her and Ash's lap while it flew. Ash just brushed them off. She looked at the treat, then looked at her two other friends. "Eat up. You need to have something today if you want to practice."

Rosita took a long look at the treat she was given, trying to decide what she should do. But after seeing how Jude insisted and how her stomach demanded to have something fill it, she sighed, and took a tiny bite. When she did, her eyes lit up from the taste of it! She could sense hints of sweet apples and cinnamon in the mix with the soft texture of the tough. But while the inside was fluffier, the outside had a certain soft-yet-firm texture, like one would find from a sugar cookie. Just the first bite was enough for Rosita to take another, repeating the process until the muffin was gone and her stomach was somewhat satisfied.

Ash gave out a surprised "huh." from how Jude managed to handle the whole situation, as did Meena. Jude themself felt accomplished and satisfied with their work, giving off a laid-back smile. When they watched Rosita take the final bite, the bus rolled to a stop next to the Moon Theater. The four all got up to leave, and Rosita mouthed a "thank you" to Jude, who gave a thumbs up in reply.

' _Makes us even for yesterday.'_ the jaguar thought as the four walked into the building.

* * *

The three contestants (excluding Jude) all took a walk together inside the Moon Theater and up to the stage where they all previously stood the day before. Each step they all took echoed throughout the grand hall. ' _Seems a lot more peaceful without a gigantic line of people.'_ Ash and Jude thought together. Meena meanwhile got a good look around the house, not being able to focus on all of the details the day before. She went agape at the arching ceiling with its fancy gold and red lining around it, the lines of golden lighting that were hung up across the walls, the ornamental vases and decorations scattered across the audience seating, and the lush, fuzzy red seats that lined up in the audience. It all seemed so mystical to her, and to think that she would be performing here- _here!_ -for the entire city to listen to her singing voice!

But just thinking about all of the piercing eyes watching her on stage killed the mystic mood for her. Jude didn't really care that much about the decorations though; not one for the fancy.

Up on the stage, waiting for the remaining contestants and Buster Moon, were the dancing frog trio from the day before! The four recalled how the trio got picked for their coordination with their dance moves and excelling chorus while singing the song "JUMP!" by Ram Halen. However, that excelling teamwork and friendship seemed almost nonexistent now, as the three were caught up in a heavy debate about something involving the group. But all three of the frogs were trying to speak louder than the other, making trying to eavesdrop on the argument almost impossible.

Off to the side and praying that the koala came soon was Pete the camel, who was plugging his ears and trying to block out all the yelling. He was nominated for his opera-like singing abilities, and how he was able to keep a high note for a long period of time! If one was to hear him sing, it would seem as if he was a natural opera star, or even a former one who came back for another shot!

And lastly, joining Pete on the other side of the stage and to Jude's disappointment, was Mike the mouse. There's really no need to introduce him. When all four of the animals who were walking in saw him (Excluding Ash, who had no idea who he was or what he was like), they cringed from the thought of having to deal with him again. When the mouse saw Jude, they both knew the feeling was mutual. The jaguar made it their best effort to avoid the annoying mouse for now.

The four walked onto the stage as the frogs continued their argument, not even noticing the four new contestants. When they all got to the top of the steps, they went off to their own separate activities. Rosita stood patiently by herself, waiting for her partner from yesterday and Mr. Moon. Ash tended to her guitar, making sure that it was in good condition to play some good riffs. After a bit, she got up and wandered off somewhere, most likely the bathroom. Meena went over to Pete and Mike to try and offer them a muffin, to which Pete gratefully took one but Mike refused strongly, saying that he "Didn't want anything that freak over there touched!" Jude just rolled their eyes in annoyance while dangling their legs off of the ledge.

Meena walked back over to her friend and sat next to them, legs crossed, setting the box of muffins next to her. Meena saw her friend's eyes and how they looked at nothing, knowing that they were off somewhere thinking about something. ' _They've been doing that a lot now.'_ The elephant thought. Meena looked at her friend's face, wondering what they were thinking about in their head. Perhaps something about Rosita from the bus? Meena was certainly impressed at how Jude managed to figure out the pig's troubles all on their own. But the elephant had a feeling that this was not the case. If it was, their friend would have a slight smile on their face. But instead, it was an empty expression, completely unreadable. At least to her.

So she assumed that it had to do with something about Mike. Meena had a faint chill go up her back when she recalled the events from yesterday again. ' _Actually,'_ the elephant thought ' _maybe it's a good time to bring that up.'_ She tapped lightly on the jaguar's shoulder, grabbing their attention and pulling them out of their trance.

"Hey, Jude?" Meena asked. The jaguar turned to their friend, still trying to get their head out of the clouds. Jude let out a "hm?", and then Meena continued.

"Listen, I want to talk to you about… yesterday." Their friend's face went guilty, and looked away from Meena after a faint "oh."

"Jude, I know you did… that… to try and stand up for me-I get that." Jude looked back to Meena; their face looking like an ashamed pup. "But you almost-you-you can't do that again! I don't want anybody else to get hurt!" The elephant tried to explain this to her friend, but they cut her off with a sigh and a facepalm.

"Meena, I don't want anybody to get hurt either, believe me. But I just, can't." Jude pulled their legs up from the ledge and crossed them just like Meena, then began to press their fingertips on the sides of their head. "It's like, whenever I see something bad happen to you, my mind just, flips. I get really angry and I just, can't control myself. I always just forget where I am and just, lose it."

"But why do you go that far?" Meena pressed on. "You could've hurt that man over there just because he was mean to me, but _why_?"

"It's just! It's just…" Jude trailed off again, turning a shoulder to the elephant and grabbing their arm. Jude muttered something under their breath, thinking that it was quiet enough for Meena to not hear anything. But with her excellent ears, she was able to hear what Jude was trying to hide. So she opened up one of her big ears and listened in to Jude's mumbles.

"-don't want you to end up like me."

Meena closed her giant ear, not knowing what to make of Jude's whispers. ' _End up like them?'_ Meena didn't understand, but she was still concerned nonetheless. She started to extend her hand to try and press a little further-

 _ **SLAM**_

A giant door slam echoed throughout the hall, causing all of the contestants to stop what they were doing and turn their heads to the entrance. There, standing right within the wide open door frame, was a shinily dressed, plump pig that everybody remembered no matter how hard they tried to forget. It was none other than Gunter, the spontaneous, energetic pig from the day before! He bent down into a beholding position, showing off his shiny tracksuit covered self.

"HAH! Gunter iz here everyone!"

He skipped through the isles to the steps, showing Johnny right behind him, frantically checking to see if the slammed door had gotten anything broken by Gunter's wild entrance. After three quick seconds, he let out a sigh of relief and turned back to the stage.

"Gunter, did ya' really have to kick the door open?" The gorilla asked, finishing his check of the door (which miraculously had no damages done from Gunter's kick). The pig spun around and started doing a backwards prance to the stage to talk to the big leather wearing gorilla.

"No. But it waz spicy, ya?" The golden pig gave a nonchalant shrug to Johnny, who groaned lightly at his lack of attention to Moon's property. Without waiting for an answer, Gunter twirled back to the stage and flew up the steps, landing on the top of the stage with a snappy pose. Everyone was sent into a stunned silence from the pig's energetic intro; save for Meena and Jude who couldn't help but giggle. Johnny just sighed as he jogged up behind him to the rest of the contestants. The two of them saw the day before how playful and optimistic he was when Buster partnered Gunter and Rosita together, and he immediately made a good impression to the two friends.

Seeing an out to an awkward conversation, Jude stepped up and waved to the two remaining contestants. "Hey, Gunter! Johnny!" When the two looked over, the jaguar snatched up the muffin box and jogged over to the gorilla and the pig. Meena's smile was wiped away when she saw Jude bail out on the talk about yesterday's incident. The elephant sighed and then stood up, thinking that she could just talk to her friend later. Gunter and Johnny waved to the jaguar with a friendly smile.

"'Ello Jude!"

"Hi there!" The two said together, despite Gunter not even knowing who Jude was. Meena followed close behind her friend, still not looking too happy about Jude's bail.

"Do either of you want some muffins?" Jude opened the box to show off the goods. Gunter awed at the sweet treats while Johnny's smile went up a bit more when he saw the muffins. "Meena and I made them last night, Apple Cinnamon!" Johnny began to tenderly reach for one, but was interrupted by Gunter quickly grabbing two out of the box and rushing to try one. He took a big bite of one of the muffins, almost chomping off half of the top, and then let out a satisfied "Mmmmmm!" as he chewed.

"Thiz muffin," Gunter swallowed the bite "tastes like grandma, ma, and grandmama all baked together for these delicious treats! You two hav' baking skill better than my whole family!" Meena smiled at the comment, while Jude chuckled at Gunter's choice of words. ' _You don't hear stuff like that every day.'_

"Well, it was my grandmother's recipe, so you should probably thank her. We mainly just helped with mixing the ingredients." Meena said as Johnny took a muffin for himself. Gunter pointed the half-muffin at the elephant with a slightly serious expression, causing her to flinch slightly.

"You helped, did you not?" Meena nodded. Gunter's optimistic smile returned. "Then thank you two AND your grandma! Haha!" Gunter laughed as he pranced over to his partner to say hi before the day began. Jude and Meena giggled again at Gunter's wording, and Johnny finally took a bite from the muffin he grabbed.

"Mmm, really good! Thankth you!" The gorilla said through his muffled mouth. Jude closed the lid and gave a good thumbs up while Meena let out a quiet "Thank you."

"Hey is everything okay down here? I thought I heard a bang." A voice interrupted everyone coming from stage right. Everyone looked over to see the theater's owner himself, Buster Moon, along with his lizard assistant Miss Crawley shambling behind, carrying some papers. He adjusted his suit as he jogged in. The frogs quickly stopped their arguing and went to the back of the stage to line up, pretending that they were never arguing at all. Meena, Rosita and Johnny all waved hello at the koala, to which he responded with an optimistic grin.

"Ah, you're all here! Good! Now, everyone line up if you'd please, single file!" The koala announced to everybody, twirling his finger in the air as an extra signal. The contestants did as they were told (along with Jude, who just stood at the end of the line next to Meena). Buster took the papers that Miss Crawley was holding and the two marched down the line, stopping right at Jude looking around the theater absent mindedly.

"Hey, Jude?" The jaguar snapped back to reality and looked down at the koala, who was pointing curiously with a pen to the box they were holding. "What's in there?"

"Ah, muffins. Meena and I made them last night." They opened the box to offer some to the koala. He gratefully accepted one, and took a bite as he marched down the line. Right behind him, Miss Crawley handed Meena one of the sheets of paper. The two inspected it as Buster talked to the rest of the line. It was a list of ten different songs for Meena to try for the competition, along with some extra notes for performance recommendations at the bottom. Some of the songs that were on the list were from hit artists like Stevie Udder and Rufus Rainwright, which Meena has thankfully heard before. However there were some, unconventional choices for the below performance recommendations that the elephant wasn't exactly too keen on.

"Now everyone, if you want to get a shot at that hundred grand, you'll have to fight for it!" Buster spoke confidently as the other animals got their papers.

"Wait what?! These guys are like, ten times the size as me, how is that fair?!" One of the frog trio members panicked, to which he got a slap on the arm.

"Not an actual fight Howie, you dimwit! He means we compete!" Another one of the larger frogs scolded. Howie opened his mouth to start to snap back, but an "Ahem" from Buster put the two back in line. "Now anyways, you'll have to fight with everything you got if you want that prize! I don't want to see High School Talent show effort here people! This contest is war! This stage is the battlefield. Your song is your weapon. Now, you only get one shot to blow that audience away, so choose carefully from the list of songs I've selected for each of you!"

As Buster walked back to the start of the line, Ash came back from wherever she went off to and picked up her guitar case as she stepped in with the rest. Buster saw the Porcupine hop into the line, and looks satisfied with seeing one of his star contestants from the day before.

"Ah, talked some sense into that boyfriend of yours." the koala said, getting a scoff in return.

"Lance is an artist, but I wouldn't expect _you_ to understand that."

"You're right, I don't understand that at all!" Buster handed Ash her song sheet, as she stood there dumbfounded at how Buster completely deflected her insult without a car. Buster and Miss Crawley started to walk backstage, and so the rest of the crew followed them. Meena started to approach Buster to ask about the recommendations, but wasn't able to say a word as the three frogs began arguing once again, this time about the song sheet. They all ran past the cast and into one of the rehearsal rooms. There were multiple different sized rooms for everyone back stage, along with some racks of dresses fit for relatively small animals (Koala sized mostly). There were also some stairs that led somewhere, which Meena assumed to most likely be Buster's office. The backstage seemed about as cool as the main stage to her. But just like last time, her friend didn't care too much.

Jude looked around at the glass covered rehearsal rooms, trying to find a good spot for the both of them. When they saw one of the biggest ones down the hall, the jaguar's face lit up, and they shifted the muffin box to one hand to grab one of Meena's, who was currently trying to get the koala's attention.

"Um, Mr. Moo-oOAH!" Meena was cut off of asking Moon a question when her friend started to drag her down to the largest rehearsal room with all their force with no sign of slowing down. The others paid it no mind, thinking that the two were just excited to start practicing.

"Come on Meena! Let's get to work!" Meena looked back to the rest of the cast, who were going along with their separate business, and then sighed, willingly followed her friend into the largest rehearsal room, with Jude closing the door behind them enthusiastically.


	5. Making Commitments

**Making Commitments**

To others, it would seem strange at how a 250 pound jaguar was able to drag a 1,000 pound elephant along with ease. But really, Meena was just going along with her friend's wishes. She ran into the rehearsal room right behind Jude and stumbled a bit when they let go, almost flinging her across the room! Meena had to stop and take a breather from getting dragged into there against her will. Using this time, she looked around at where they would be staying for the rest of the day.

It was a wide open box-shaped room, with light blue wallpaper that matched Meena's jacket. The floorboards inside were similar to the ones out on the stage; dark, slick and smooth, and could allow animals to slide on it if they wore just their socks. The side the two came in from was just doors and wide glass panes, which allowed onlookers to peek in and observe the contestants. But thankfully, it also provided a large, red curtain in case the animal practicing didn't want to be watched. On the rest of the walls were multiple tall mirrors which dancers could use to watch themselves do the choreography and perfect their form. A boombox was also provided on the side, along with a couple CDs that had different songs labeled on each. There were also some tables to put their stuff on, railing for dancing balance, and a coat hanger in one of the far corners.

After putting down the muffin box, her friend spun around on their toes and closed the door behind them so they could practice in peace.

"Alright, let's get to it!" Jude enthusiastically cheered. The jaguar happily marched along to Meena, who had planted her feet in the ground to regain her regular breathing pattern. She wasn't exactly the most athletic type back in high school, as she didn't join many sports teams that peaked her interest. Plus she always thought she would be a hindrance on the team, considering that she was a newbie on a team of professionals. But she still liked to be active and have fun when she could as a kid, and she has gotten better from when she was a younger kid. Playing with Jude always helped, since she tried to keep up with the energetic friend.

"Let's see here…" Jude, before Meena could even realize it, plucked the song and performance suggestion sheet right out of Meena's grasp and examined it closer. Their friend wasn't exactly pleased, as they had interrupted her asking Mr. Moon a question and dragged her into here without warning. Trying to push through her timidness, Meena tried to speak up and against her friend to bring them down to Earth. "Ju-Jude"-

"Huh, that Koala actually has a good sense for music." The Jaguar continued, not noticing their friend. "There's some pretty good stuff on here: "Wild Things", "Roar", "Beautiful", "Don't You Worry'- oh, maybe not that one actually. You wouldn't really like that one, huh?" While Meena did slightly agree with Jude's statement, she still tried to get their attention. She needed to talk about something more important than the song list. "Ju"-

"Oh wait, what's with these- what? "Single Ladies", "Edge of Glory", and, oh god "Tik Tok?" Alright, I take back what I said! This guy doesn't understand your thing at all!"

"Jude stop." Meena firmly demanded, causing Jude to stop in their tracks and nearly drop the paper. It wasn't often Jude heard their friend get angry, but when they accidentally made her angry, they always immediately regretted it. Well, they always regretted it whenever Meena was something other than happy because of themselves, but getting her angry was a rare occasion for them. Usually Meena was too shy to ever raise her voice at somebody, so when she talked back to somebody who deserved it, nobody ever expects it. So Jude shut up right where they were before they could make Meena any more angry.

"Please," she spoke, "we need to talk. Now."

"Oh yeah sure mhmm alright sorry." Jude spat out faster than they could run. They fell down into a cross-legged position and folded their paws together in hopes of trying to appease their friend. They showed visible signs of stress and fear, which didn't exactly assure the elephant that this would work that well, so she toned it down a bit. She took a deep, frustrated sigh, and sat down in front of her friend. Their eyes were wide and looking around, obviously worried about what she would say to them.

"Jude, I know you're excited to get started on practice, and I am too." She said, attempting a calm tone. "But we have to talk about yesterday. And before you try to do something to get out of it, I'm not going to practice if we don't. So just please listen to me right now." It was clear that they were reluctant to do so, as they tensed up even more when Meena once again mentioned Yesterday. But they winced when she also added on the self threat she threw out. So taking a deep breath, they prepared to let out a lengthy apology.

"Look I know that it was my fault and I know that I could've gotten that douche killed but you know that I can't control that and to be honest he would've deserved it because he thinks he's better than everyone else and"-

"Stop." Meena cut them off with a disgruntled tone, causing Jude to tense up like they did the way before. Meena knew that if she tried to sit down and have a serious conversation with somebody like Jude, it wasn't going to end up the way it was intended to be. It happened before and it was about to happen again. So thinking for a second after rubbing her temples, Meena looked at Jude directly in their eyes. She could see her friend flinch from her firm posture.

"Just, try not to hurt anybody while we're here. I know you already promised this to me, but you have to really make sure you don't do that again here. Even if you do think somebody like Mike deserves it, he doesn't deserve to get killed."

"But I wasn't"-

"Jude do you remember what you did to those baboons?" She screamed, breaking her firm posture. Jude hopped a little where they sat in shock and braced themselves for a long rant and yell. Their eyes pressed shut and turned away to prepare themselves for what was to come. Seeing this, Meena tried to calm herself down and get her friend off edge. After a couple seconds of silence, (Save for some nearby music from one of the other contestants), Jude looked back to their friend, who was now giving off a more parental look.

"All I'm saying is just, promise me you won't hurt anybody here. Even Mike. Neither of us want anybody to get hurt, so please just try, okay?" Meena pleaded, talking like she was trying to strike up an important business deal. Her friend sighed lightly, adding on "Even Mike?" She nodded back.

"Even Mike. You can insult him or, whatever, just don't hurt him. That's all I'm asking, is that okay?" The elephant leaned in closer to try and see if Jude was going to really promise or not. She's known them long enough to tell whether they lie or not from very small signs. Sometimes the tail would flick a certain way, sometimes they would curl up their toes, sometimes they would even dig their claws into their own fur (Which she was completely against). But, to her pleasure, she didn't find a single one of these signs when they finally sighed after thinking for about ten seconds.

"Okay, I promise." Jude said, looking at their friend in the eyes, trying to put on a reassuring smile. "If it helps you out with the contest, then I'll do it for ya'." Meena dropped her parental posture and gave a heartwarming smile with a nod. "Thank you Jude." She stood back up, grabbing the request sheet Buster had given her earlier. But she almost let it slide out of her grip once again when Jude unexpectedly wrapped their arms around her. Her friend held her slightly tight, trying to get their grip as wide as possible since they were pretty much half of Meena's size.

"and I'm sorry for bein' a butt." Jude felt a little better after they felt a slightly tighter grip around their back, since they knew that Meena accepted their apology. But Jude's ears suddenly perked up, catching the sound of a nearby voice. Taking a quick glance to not interrupt the hug, they saw a quick flash of grey fur drop down from the outside of one of the nearby windows. Assuming that it was just another animal looking in on the two friends making up like yesterday at the diner, Jude didn't pay it much mind. So pulling away from each other, they started to walk and talk over to the boombox.

"So, there are a couple songs on here that I'm fine with, like the ones you said while you were taking a look." Meena started to explain. "And the performance part is okay too. But the dress part, I'm not so sure about."

"What do you mean?" Jude asked.

"Well," she ruffled the paper a bit so she could get a straight look at it, "' _Try to find a dress fitting for your voice so that they can go along with each other.'_ What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, well he probably just wants you to get a cute dress for the show! We can just ask your mom for help when we get back home." Jude said while flipping through the different CDs, sorting out the ones that the two liked and didn't like. Meena mumbled a little, thinking that maybe they could ask somebody else. Knowing her mom, she would probably get Meena a really flashy and sparkly dress. She would just prefer to wear something a little humble instead. Jude finished sorting the songs, having just three out of the twelve from the list remain. Meena, deciding to just focus on the songs for now, picked up the CD labeled " _Beautiful_ " and popped it in. As the music started up, Jude jogged to one of the tables to get a good seat.

"Remember, just think of it like the Karaoke machine. We're just here singing for fun, there's nothing to worry about here." They said reassuringly as they hopped up onto the table. "Just relax, close your eyes, and just have fun." Meena folded her hands together nervously, but nodded in response. She did one round of Rosita's deep breathing, then closed her eyes and lowered her head. ' _Okay okay okay, just relax. You can do this.'_ she tried to think to herself. But before she could think otherwise, the lyrics started, and Meena tried to keep up.

" _Everyday is so wonderful but suddenly, it's hard to breathe._

 _Now and then, I g-get insecure, from all the pain, I-I'm so ashamed."_

Jude managed to pick up the stutter, and they knew what was up. Meena was nervous because she started singing too late, and her rushing made her recoil slightly. She had her ears pressed up against her head, like she was stuck in a spotlight or something. So trying not to throw her off anymore, Jude lightly rapped on the table to get her attention as she sang. Meena caught on with it, and looked up from the floor. She was meet with Jude closing their eyes and raising a hand slowly up and down their chest area, going along with her breathing. They were telling her to try and calm down. Meena just looked back down, and tried to continue with the song.

" _I-I'm beautiful, in, in every single way._

 _Yes words can't bring"-_

And then the building went dark. Suddenly without any warning, all of the power was out like a light. The music died down and then cut off completely, leaving the room with only silence, save for the other complaining contestants. With all of the nearby music going dead, it proved that the building went into a power outage, not just a light malfunction. But either way, it still interfered with everyone's practice. A faint "Woah!" and "Eep!" came from the two friends when everything was cut off.

"Jude? What happened?" the elephant waved her arms out in front of her to help prevent hitting something by accident in the blackness. Jude however, was completely calm; as the inky black for their friend was just a dim grey in their eyes. They were very thankful to be themselves at that moment. They looked around to assess their situation, then walked over to Meena to help her out. They tugged gently on Meena's sleeve and got their attention.

"Power outage I think." They pulled out their phone and turned on the flashlight feature, brightening up the room and some parts of the hallway outside. They caught a glimpse of some of the other contestants walking by and getting blinded by the sudden flash of light. So to save them and their friend, Jude plopped down the phone into Meena's hand. Jude didn't need it anyways because of their night sight."Come on, let's go check things out." They said, and then headed for the door.

The two walked out to find the rest of the animals huddled together in a group, trying to figure out what was going on and what to do. Everybody else seemed to have forgotten their phones at home, since nobody else tried to do what Jude did. They all seemed thankful when the flashlight was pointed in their direction so they could finally see. Miss Crawley, who was currently feeling a very frustrated Buster's face, pulled their hands away once the light was shining on them. She laughed, slightly embarrassed. The two friends giggled when they witnessed it as they walked closer, but Meena stopped once she felt something beneath her shoe.

"Gah! Hey watch it ya' big buffoon, I'm walkin' here!" Mike yelled from below. She quickly lifted up her foot and hopped backwards, pointing the phone down to illuminate the mad mouse. She apologised quickly after realizing what she just did, but Mike didn't accept it. Although, when he saw just who it was he was yelling at, along with who was next to her, he shuffled, then jogged away from them to hide behind a different animal's foot. Buster groaned in frustration from the clamoring contestants in the dark.

"Oh for pete's sake…" He shook his head, obviously angry. Then, trying to hide his anger, he put on an optimistic exterior and spoke up to address the crowd.

"Don't worry everyone, I'll take care of this. In the meantime, you will all continue to rehearse, in the dark!" Buster spoke with certainty, getting the complete opposite in response. The entire crew was utterly baffled, the friend duo included. The looked between each other, not sure what to say from Buster's claim. But Ash's monotone "What" seemed to speak for them.

"But I can't see anything!" Rosita complained. Thankfully, Gunter stepped in to save the day.

"Don't worry Rozita," the energetic pig suddenly pulled out two plastic tubes from his bag, then bent them slightly to give off a _CRACK._ Green light suddenly illuminated from within the tubes, and while dim, it did help out with the darkness. "I have glow stickz!"

Jude had to stifle down a laugh to prevent it from going into an all out howl. While Gunter just casually having glowsticks on him was funny in its own right, they finally got a good look at exactly what he was wearing. A bright red leotard that was on the verge of revealing too much of his chest. It sparkled and shined as well, similar to his golden track suit that he usually wears over it. Just the thought of Gunter always having that on made it even harder for the jaguar to be polite. Meena noticed this, and lightly nudged them in order to help them focus.

"Great! All of you use this time to shake off those first day ambitions, and I'll be right back!" The koala started upstairs, brushing past Johnny and Miss Crawley to wherever he was going to go. After some light complaining from Mike, Buster's assistant ushered everyone back to their rehearsal rooms to continue practicing. Meena giggled again as Gunter pranced and waved the glow sticks as he walked, making silly noises as he twirled them. As Meena started to walk back to her room, her friend tugged on her sleeve again to grab her attention.

"Hey, I'm going to go talk with Buster about something for a sec. I'll be right back, alright?" Although a little confused, Meena nodded anyways. After a light pat on the shoulder, Jude jogged up after Buster; squeezing by the lizard and gorilla as they travelled up the steps. Meena took a long sigh, as they had a feeling that they knew what her friend was going to do. But instead of stopping them, she started to look up an instrumental version of "Beautiful" on EweTube, knowing there wouldn't be any way to stop it.

Jude followed Buster through some of the offices upstairs and into a larger one nearby. Because of the multiple framed photos and the scale of the room itself, the jaguar assumed that this was Buster's office. Some nearby windows allowed midday light to stream into the room, allowing Jude to not solely rely on their night-vision. Taking a moment to just look around the room, they thought to themselves ' _Wow. How much room does this tiny koala need?'_ They looked at the countless framed photos that completely covered one of the walls; on the verge of showing none of the wallpaper behind them. But the photos didn't even compare to the amount of props that were littered all over the office! On the walls, on his desk, on the couch; everywhere! But going back to the matter at hand, they strided over to the owner of the large office, who was currently fiddling with a couple extension cords.

"Hey Moon, got a sec?" They asked, grabbing Moon's attention for a quick second. After pausing for a moment and glancing behind him, he answered "Indeed I do, what's the problem?" while he connected two extension cords together. He scanned the room as if he was looking for something, tapping his chin lightly while pondering.

"I just wanted to thank you for letting Meena into the competition. I honestly wasn't sure if you would let her try again, since we came in around the end of the auditions and we changed out song and all." Jude continued in a grateful tone. Buster turned around to face the jaguar for a brief moment.

"Well how could I not? Your friend has some excellent pipes Jude, almost enough to rival Mike's!" Jude scowled lightly, looking to the doorway for a second. "She's a natural star in the making Jude; it would be a crime to not let her in!" Going back to the power issue, he mumbled to himself on how to deal with the situation. Jude could hear him say "Don't have any sort of generator… But maybe…"

"Well if there's anything you're having trouble with, I can help you out with it." They offered to the koala, who was currently looking out the window as if he made a stunning realization. "Actually," he said, turning around to face them "maybe there is something." He jogged over to the window, waving Jude to follow him. He lifted it open, letting the cool breeze flow into the office, scattering some papers inside in the process. He crawled to the edge of the windowsill and pointed to the right of the theater.

"Any chance you could get this cable over there?" Jude nudged their head through the opening to see where the koala was pointing; the next door store's illuminated sign. It was glowing with dark blue light to spell out the word "STORE" from what Jude could see. "Over there?"

"Yeah. One of the letters on that sign is almost always on the fritz, so nobody would even notice if I just unplugged it. Then we can swap that power for our power, and the building will light up once again!" the koala opened his arms to gesture to the entire theater, and Jude got the point. They looked down at the bustling street below, and the distance from Buster's window to the next door store. The narrow ledges didn't exactly seem stable enough to support the jaguar's weight. Jude pulled their head back into the building, smoothing their fur a little to get it back to the way it was before the wind messed it up. "Are you sure about this? It's a long drop down, if either of us try it."

"True, but I'm sure we'll think of something. Plus, it's the only way this place will get powered back up again. So any ideas?" Jude looked out the window again, taking in the distance between them and the next door roof. It was obviously too far for them to jump, and nothing could support their weight if they tried to shimmy across. So looking around the room, Jude tried to see if there was anything they could use. They put a finger to their chin, slightly mocking what Buster was doing before. They looked from the props, to the window, to Buster, and then to the cord. Right then would've been a perfect opportunity to have just one lightbulb light up above their head.

Jude jogged over to the mini stage light prop next to Buster's desk and snatched it up, bringing it over to the window. They moved aside some books that were piled up next to it and plopped down the light right next to it. Then, they walked over to Buster and the cord, picking both of them up like they were weightless. The koala waved their arms from the sudden rise in altitude, and they didn't exactly take it kindly to being picked up like a stuffed doll. Once they got to the window again, they pulled up as much slack in the cord as they could get; winding it into one big loop. Buster just watched Jude do their work, but was slightly confused as the jaguar tied the cable around his waist. He coughed as the wind was taken out of him when they tied it snug.

"Alright, here we go." Jude warned as they grabbed Buster for a second time. Wrapping the fuzzy tail around the pole of the prop, they put a foot onto the windowsill.

"Waitwaitwait what're you doing?" Buster started to wiggle apprehensively, getting nervous at what the jaguar was planning. They almost went sick to their stomach when he was suddenly being lifted up several stories above the ground lightly in the animal's arm like a football! Both of Jude's feet were on the window, with the support of the light prop helping prevent a fatal fall. The two leaned outside at an uneasy angle, and it seemed like the two could fall at any moment. Jude took the koala out from underneath their arm and held him with both paws under his arms. At this point, Buster really felt like some sort of doll. As Jude looked over to the sign, Buster started to have his doubts on the jaguar's plan.

"U-uh, Jude?" Buster nervously stuttered out as the jaguar lowered him down to their side. "I don't exactly like where this is goOOIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!" The koala was sent soaring through the air screaming at the top of his lungs! Jude had this sort of smug look on their face as they threw him, almost like they were certain that things were going to work out. The cable around his waist soared right behind him, leaving a flying trail of black wiring right behind him. The large loop of cable next to Jude unraveled the further he soared, with it almost reaching its limit when Buster was almost to the sign. Some of the animals down below watched this, getting anxious when Buster was thrown. Then, stopping in a slight roll, Buster finally landed on the roof of the next door store! Jude pumped their fist with delight as Buster slowly lifted himself up.

"A little warning would've been nice!" The koala yelled up to Jude, who was still hanging from the windowsill.

"Hey, you made it over there, didn't you?" Without responding to that question, Buster untied the extension cord from around his waist and walked over to the O in STORE. He unplugged the power cable that connected it to its power source, causing the glowing blue to go dark. Then after tossing that one over his shoulder, he connected the extension cable to the power source, satisfied. Jude saw over their shoulder Buster's office light up, and the rest of the cast down below cheering in delight.

Pulling themself back through the window, Jude mumbled to Buster "That should make us even." as the koala started to help himself back down to the ground.


	6. Strike a Deal

**Strike a Deal**

Not bothering to clean up the mess that they made, Jude walked out of the office and down to the rehearsal rooms, passing by Johnny and Crawley. The old lizard was starting to tutor Johnny how to play the piano, and he was playing a quiet little tune when Jude passed by. But it was clearly obvious that he hadn't played in ages, as he made audible errors every couple seconds. When Johnny messed up for the third time in a row and slammed on the keys in frustration, the passerby smiled to themself, giving them more confidence that Meena would win the competition.

Speeding down the steps, the jaguar saw that everyone was back in high spirits thanks to the power's return. Gunter and Rosita were doing some warm ups together along to a beat, making Jude chuckle slightly. They ran by Pete, who was practicing one of his opera songs, as well as the dancing frog trio who were doing a routine together. But when the jaguar looked back into their room, Meena was nowhere to be found. But all it took was a quick look around for the jaguar to find their friend.

Meena was looking in on Ash the rocker's guitar practice as she played high speed riffs. The porcupine was completely focused on her instrument, watching and making sure that each of her fingers hit the right string at the right time, which seemed almost impossible with how fast she was going. While she played, she stood on the top of a large case in her room, bobbing up and down slightly to the beat of her song. Jude wasn't particularly interested in her type of music, so they went to the front entrance to go meet Mr. Moon again. Meena however, stayed and watched Ash play, enthralled by the high speeds and immense talent that the small animal held. She was even more impressed when she closed her eyes and looked away from her guitar, and still played with the same amount of talent she had!

When the final note was played, the guitar's wails echoed throughout the room. Her exhausted breaths could be heard from outside the room, and certainly to Meena. Once Ash recovered from her practice, she almost dropped her guitar when she heard clapping from outside.

"That was really good Ash!" Meena congratulated the rocker, clapping for a bit. Ash wasn't aware that she had an audience watching her performance, so it took a couple seconds of processing to ask the onlooker a question. Hopping down from the case, she pointed at Meena, slightly confused, and asked "How… long were you standing there?"

"Just a little bit." Meena responded. She sidestepped through the non-elephant friendly door and went to sit by her side. Regaining her composure, Ash decided to sit down and lay against the case she was previously using as a platform earlier. Her quills pressed outwards when they pushed against the case, making them into a sort of peacock fan. Meena sat down next to her as she stretched and flexed her fingers to relieve the strain they got from her guitar.

"So where did you learn how to play like that? It was really good!" The elephant asked, causing Ash to be slightly confused by her genuine interest. Not that many people really liked her "Loud, obnoxious garbage" she played. And certainly not Mike, who came over to her room earlier to try and get her to stop, to which she just played louder. Smiling a bit from the memory, Ash responded.

"Nothing special." She said casually. "Took some lessons in high school, online and from friends. I've been playing for a couple years and I eventually got good. Even tried playing in a band for a bit, but it wasn't really my thing."

"Oh, cool! I could never play an instrument, the sheet music was too confusing for me to understand." The elephant scratched the back of her neck while she spoke. After getting nothing back but a "mhm" and some moments of silence, Meena tried to talk for a bit longer.

"Did you get lessons from your friend?" Meena asked, forgetting Lance's name for a quick moment. When Ash heard this, she let out a chuckle, causing Meena to fold her ears in slightly.

"As if!" The rocker sounded slightly offended as she raised her hands slightly. "Everyone thinks that Lance is the leader between us, that he's the one who starting this whole, _thing_. But nobody even realizes that I'm the one that taught him how to play, and they're giving him all of the credit!" Ash kept gesturing to nothing in particular and pressing her hands onto her shirt for emphasis.

"Wait, really?!" Meena was astonished and confused by Ash's statement. "But it sounds like he _is_ the lead when you two sang, why aren't you the one leading?" Ash groaned and sighed at the same time from the thought of people mistaking her for the inferior of the two. Pressing a palm to her forehead, she tried to relive the memory

"Well, even though I'm good at guitar, I'm not the best in the songwriting department. The last time I tried to write one, I read it when I was done and trust me, it was disgusting!" She scoffed at herself from remembering her first "song," which pained her to think about. Raising up her knees and placing her arms on them, she continued. "Lance is better at writing songs than I am anyways, so who knows. I guess it makes sense why people think that. Doesn't make it any less frustrating."

"Well that doesn't sound fair." Meena said. But instead of Ash agreeing with her, she simply said "Well, that's life" and started to inspect and tune her guitar for another song she would soon play. The elephant felt sorry for Ash, but she could see that the rocker wasn't in the mood for talking anymore. For a while, they both just sat there, not knowing what to do. It was only when Meena spotted her friend walk back into sight with Buster that she decided to do something. Standing back up, she started to make her way out. As she walked through the doorway, she turned to Ash and said "I'll talk to you later, you did really good!" then jogged to her friend. Ash smiled from the compliment, then went back to her craft.

"Okay, you get back to your practice with Meena, and we'll get started tomorrow!" Buster spoke enthusiastically as he strided up the steps to his office. He wiped some dust and gravel off of his suit, making Meena wonder what exactly the two did upstairs. She suddenly wondered to herself if the two even came back through the rehearsal rooms or not. ' _What did the two do up there?'_

"Alright, but I'm doing this for Meena, not you!" Jude yelled back to the koala as he stopped at one of the corners for the stairway to look back at them.

"No problemo, now go on and get to work!" Buster went back to walking up the steps, and disappeared from sight. The jaguar looked down and put a hand on their hip, lost in thought for a moment. Their face was unreadable to Meena, and she wondered at just what had happened when they and Buster were alone. As their friend approached, Jude snapped out of it and put on a smile.

"Oh hey Meena." They greeted their friend with a relaxed nature, but grew confused when Meena started to show confusion.

"Jude, what were you and Mr. Moon talking about?" Meena asked, growing slightly more suspicious at what Jude had decided to do this time. Her friend tried to put on a calming smile to relax her, but that just made Meena even more skeptical.

"Don't worry Meena." The jaguar put their paws around Meena's hands. "Buster and I were talking for a while and he said that he needed a little more help around the theater. So after talking it out, I said that I would help him out!"

"Help out as in, cleaning up and locking up the theater?" Meena had a bad feeling that she knew where this was going.

"Well, yeah," Jude added on, looking away for a quick moment, "but I'm also going to be helping out with the performances and stuff! He said I could be stagehand for the show! Cool right?!" The jaguar raised both of their hands up and smiled like a little cub. But Meena started to look slightly anxious when Jude announced her new role. Cautiously, she slowly pulled her hands away, leaving Jude as confused as Meena was before.

"Jude, you're serious?"

"Um, yeah?" The two lowered their hands.

"You're telling the truth?"

"Yeeah? Why do you sound worried?" Jude asked.

"Well, I don't know…" Meena looked away, not sure how exactly she should tell Jude the truth. "You aren't really… the best at this, stuff? Like, remember the play in middle school?"

"Uggghh!" Jude slapped a paw to their head, painfully recalling the memory of that play. "Don't remind me. I still remember that whole thing, no matter how much I want to forget." they placed their paws on their right hip and shivered slightly. "I can still feel the penguins' beaks." But then they quickly shook their head to snap out of it and looked back at Meena with a determined look in their eyes.

"But trust me Meena, this time it will be different! Buster is going to show me what to do tomorrow, so it won't be a last minute thing like last time! I'll actually know what to do, and I won't mess anything up! It won't be like… the incident." They squinted their eyes and peered behind them, as if another memory of the play was sneaking up behind their back.

"I hope so. All that glue was hard to get off of my trunk." The elephant did a quick check just to see if any glue still remained after all these years, manually lifting it up without the need of her hands. But to her pleasure, not one dot of it was seen, and she took a sigh of relief. "But are you sure you're ready? This is a pretty big job!"

"Look Meena, how about we get back to practice? We can talk about it a little more back at the house, but we need to focus on your singing for now. Is that alright?" The elephant looked into the sapphire eyes of her friend, which were piercing right into her head. Meena knew that look all too well. She saw that look not only at the diner from yesterday, but also many years ago before _the incident_. Once she saw that look on Jude's face, there was no stopping her, no matter what anybody did. So, still holding some reluctance in herself, she nodded and said "Alright." Jude gave a fangy grin.

"Alrighty then, let's get back to it!" Jude cheered with immense glee. Their friend tried to shake off their doubts and put on a smile for them, but it was harder than it sounded. So instead, Meena quickly spun around and walked towards their rehearsal room in an attempt to hide the worry on her face. Meena knew that this was all for good intentions, but at times Jude could go a little too overboard. She just hoped that their friend was telling the truth, and that everything would be okay in the end. But the tiniest, strongest feeling on her gut told her that things were going to go wrong someway, somehow. But, for the sake of her friend, she tried to put on a smile, and marched back to her room.

As Jude watched their friend turn away and walk back, they couldn't help but to get a bad feeling in their gut as well. Her fangy grin died down as Meena put up a clearly fake smile for their sake. Jude couldn't be fooled easily, they already knew.

' _See? Even Meena doesn't trust you with this. YOU don't trust yourself with this! Why are you doing this if you KNOW something is going to go wrong?'_

' _No, this time it's different. It won't be like all the other times where I screwed everything up. Buster is showing me how to do this, and he already needed the help. It's better this way, I can help her through this.'_

' _Isn't that basically what you said last time?'_

' _No. And this time I WILL do it right! No more screw ups, no more accidents, no more disappointments. I got it this time. I have to for Meena. I hav_ e to for Meena. I have to for"-

"Hey whiskers, you done?" An all too familiar voice broke the jaguar out of her mood, and put them into a defensive mode. Looking around for the smug voice, Jude found the red and white fuzzball trying to climb down the impossibly large stairway. The Jaguar scowled at the mouse in disgust, figuring out that he eavesdropped on their entire conversation. They were also very displeased by the nickname that he dumped onto them, not exactly leaving a good ring to it. Mike only rolled his eyes at what he thought was an overdramatic, young child. When he dropped down from the last step, he answered his question for the jaguar and said "I'll take that as a yes then."

Jude took their hands off of their arms, not even realizing how they got there in the first place, and then folded them together to try and look a little more intimidating. It didn't work on Mike.

"Now listen here ya' big cat, I"-

"Sorry, what? I can't hear you!" Jude yelled down to the mouse below, unable to get rid of the light smirk on their face in the process. Jude smiled even more when they saw his unamused expression.

"I know you can hear"-

"Sorry fluffball, I can't understand a word you're saying from up here!" The jaguar continued to tease the tiny aggressor, who was growing more irritated by the moment. Their eyes suddenly beamed with the realization of a perfect opportunity. "Hold on one moment squirt."

Jude bent down, went on all fours, then laid down on their stomach right in front of Mike, who had his arms crossed and was still not amused. Meanwhile the jaguar was just snickering as if they heard the funniest joke ever said. After a groan, Mike continued.

"You done?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just get on with it."

"About damn time…" The mouse mumbled to himself, shaking his head. Then raising it back up with a strict stare (that of course the jaguar did not take seriously), he looked at the taunter in their gigantic eyes.

"I heard you talking back there, about you bein' the stage hand? So this, THING, whatever you're planning right now, stop it!" The mouse stomped a foot down onto the floor, giving off only the faintest of thumps. Still amused, Jude tilted their head to the side for a second. "Thing?"

"I already know what's going on here kid!" Mike yelled in the jaguar's face, which he regretted when he heard some conversations around the two suddenly cut off. So the mouse took a deep breath and put on a fake smile, whispering through his gritted teeth.

"You're gonna try and ruin everybody else's performance and MAKE dumbo win! For all I know, you're gonna kill us to have Meena win, then take the money for yourself!"

"Alright little guy, calm down." Jude's grin went away, leaving an expression similar to Mike's earlier. Mike was about to burst again and scream, but Jude put a finger to Mike's mouth, muffling his speech. "Listen shorty, while it may come as a surprise to you, I have standards. I have friends. I have something other than money that's driving me to do this, and it's a little thing called family. Although knowing you, it's unlikely that you would understand what those things are." Mike pulled himself away, his rage growing to new heights. But once again before he let out another outburst, Jude scooted forwards and shushed the small, angry mouse once again.

"I'm doing this so Meena can be happy, because she's not the most confident. I came along to help her through the contest, and that is all. I don't care about money, I don't care about anything else, and I don't care about what you think. I don't have some sort of scheme or whatever you're thinking about in that tiny brain of yours." Jude pushed out one claw of theirs and flicked off their hat, revealing a tiny cowlick of white fur. Mike scampered to put his hat back on, but the secret was already out. The mouse stomped his foot again and glared at the jaguar once they started to snicker again. Then, calming themselves down, they tried to talk to the mouse again.

"So how about this rat?"

"I'm a mo"-

"Don't care. How about this?" It looked like Mike was going to explode any second. Jude wondered if they had to go get a wet tissue to wipe everything up. "You stay out of our stuff, I'll stay out of your stuff. We just leave each other alone and be on our way; that's it. That sound okay with you ya' little fuzzball?" The claw from the finger retracted, and Jude held it out to see if Mike would shake on it and leave the two alone. Mike looked from the finger to Jude and back again, appalled that Jude would even try to do something like this. But after a couple seconds, he shook his head and shoved the finger away.

"Yeah, like I'd ever make a deal with somebody who tried to KILL ME the day before!" This time the mouse didn't bother with keeping quiet, causing Jude to grow more annoyed. "If you wanna make a deal, how about this? Stay out of my way and rush your fat friend home before she runs off crying herself. You two don't even stand a chance against me!" Not bothering to listen to anything else the jaguar has to say, the mouse starts off to his rehearsal room to practice for the rest of the day. Successfully raising his ego back up to its normal high level, he smiled as he ran, mumbling to himself "That prize is as good as mine!" Jude lifted themself off of the ground, going back to both feet.

"And don't call her fat!" Jude yelled, to which Mike replied "What, you want me to lie now? What person do you take me for?" in an painfully sarcastic tone. The jaguar ran their paws down their face, frustrated by their fruitless efforts to try and make the ride to the end of the competition smoother. But the jaguar just tried to shrug it off, and turned around to walk back to their room to their friend. However, they were met with the not so pleasant surprise of said friend watching the two talk. This in particular did not make Jude that angry, but when they saw Meena looking down at their stomach, they were sure that Mike could feel the swords darting into his soul. Marching back to their room in a huff, Jude grabbed the elephant's hand and brought them back into the room.

"Don't worry about it Meena, let's just get back to practicing." Without debating, and taking one more look down at their gut, Meena closed the door behind them and did as their friend wished.

* * *

Later that evening, as the music throughout the theater died, all of the contestants were cleaning up for the day. Gunter, Pete and Johnny had driven home in their cars, Mike had disappeared to wherever he went off to, and the rest of the contestants all waited for the bus. As for Miss Crawley and Buster, nobody knew where they went that night. Some of the contestants wondered if the two even left the building at all that night. But eventually, the thought faded from their minds and they all stood at the station, eager to get onto the bus and back home.

Jude and Meena tried to talk to each other about the song choices over the frog trio's arguing, which seemed almost impossible with the degree at which they were yelling. Thankfully, Rosita was able to come to the rescue to herself and Ash, offering some disposable earplugs for the two of them. Ash appreciated it, since her phone had died about an hour ago and she forgot her charger. Jude and Meena however, were left on the bad end of the scale. After far too much yelling on top of yelling, the two decided to give in and ask for more earplugs. Rosita gratefully gave them to the two teens, and they both marvelled in the silence that was given to them. Then, like a blessing from Dog himself, the bus rolled up to a halt and the frog trio immediately stopped their yelling, giving a sigh of relief from the others waiting.

Rosita and Ash slumped into their seats, Ash making her's into a pincushion. The two friends also made their way up, but as Meena walked on board, she put her hands into her pockets and stopped dead in her tracks. After feeling around and patting her sides, she spun around to Jude and whispered "I forgot your phone inside!" Not even waiting a moment, Jude hopped down from the steps, leaping over the frogs, and yelled behind their shoulder "Hold the bus for me!" The horse driver inside groaned at having to wait a little behind schedule.

Rushing through the empty halls of the building, Jude let their dark vision do their work as they made their way to the rehearsal rooms. They weren't worried about having to run into anybody, since they were sure that everybody had left for the day. However, once they ran backstage, they skidded to a stop once they saw a light coming from up the steps along with some whistling. It didn't sound like anybody was coming back down, but Jude decided to be cautious anyways. ' _Don't want them to think I'm stealing anything.'_

The jaguar went down into all fours, carefully crawling into the room they had last. But the old building showed its strain on the old floorboards, causing them to creak slightly with every pawfall. So taking long strides, they crawled as fast as they could into their rehearsal room and swiftly grabbed their phone from the table, feeling proud in their sneaking skills. ' _Jude Therna: expert thief extraordinaire!'_

As they started to make their way back out, Jude heard a voice that sounded perky, enthusiastic, and certainly coming from a koala say "Miss Crawley, could you go get me some tape from downstairs in the storage room? I need help with this pipe." The jaguar tensed up in fear of getting caught. Once they also heard a weary, peppy, certainly coming from a lizard voice reply with "Right away Mister Moon!" they booked it for the exit! Still going on all fours, they raced through the halls and burst out from the front door! Breathing heavy, the junior thief felt hyped up on adrenaline from the thrill of the heist! Smiling to themself as they put their phone in their pocket, they started to march back to the bus before they all left without them.

"Hold it right there!" The jaguar freezes mid step, and almost loses her balance from the voice. Quickly finding the source of the voice, they looked at the requester in slight confusion. It was a rather tall, female llama who was almost twice the height as Jude thanks to her neck. She wore red glasses along with some formal looking clothes, as if she was from some sort of big business. The binder she was holding further proved Jude's theory. The jaguar put on a slight pout as the llama eyed her up and down, inspecting her for something.

"Do you work in this establishment here?" The lady spoke down to Jude while looking back up at the theater; her voice giving off a vibe of higher authority. Jude, not exactly sure what to say, thought back to earlier that morning, when they had agreed to work as a stage hand. So not sure what else to say, Jude simply nodded their head slowly. They could see the buss driver behind the lady growing more and more impatient by the minute.

"Is the owner if this building still here?" As Jude opened their mouth to answer, the llama didn't even bother to listen.

"Oh don't even answer, I know what you'll say! "He's out to lunch, he's out for a bike ride, he's out seeing a friend of his!" or some other petty excuse!" The lady took out her aggression on Jude, who was growing more and more confused with each second. Their voice simmered with rage, as if this had been going on for a long, long time. Once the lady started to search through her binder for the right papers, Jude tried to speak up once again, only to be cut off before they could reply.

"Well the next time you see him," they pulled out several papers that were filled to the brim with multiple different notes, stamps, and markings across each, and gave them all to Jude, "give him these and tell him that he has spent far too long on his worthless plays and shows! He is behind on several dues and if he does not pay by the end of the"-

"Dude!" Jude turned the tables, cutting the lady off, which only made her angrier. But the jaguar was already pissed, so that simply just evened their levels of rage. "I was going to say that he is still in there. He's upstairs in his office, calm down." Jude pulled open the door for the llama, who was astonished at Jude's straightforwardness. Feeling embarrassed, the lady swiped the papers from Jude's paw and walked inside, trying to find her way up to Buster's office. "And it's not "Dude", my name is Judith!" Then, the lady disappeared in the darkness of the theater.

As Jude let go of the door and ran back to the bus, they wondered about what that whole thing was about. They weren't able to get a look at the papers, but since she said "behind on dues", they assumed it was something with money. Leaping back into the bus, they sat back down next to Meena, who had now taken the window seat and was listening to music with her headphones. It didn't seem like she noticed what just happened, so Jude prefered it that way and kept quiet. As the bus rolled away from the Moon Theatre, only one thought went through Jude's mind.

' _Not even a thank you?!'_


	7. Frustration

**Frustration**

Going home after the first day of rehearsals was not the most relaxing experience for Meena. After Jude's argument with Mike, the two had dedicated the rest of the day to try and perfect the song. Meena tried to mix up her singing style each time she sang "Beautiful", and Jude kept giving constructive criticism where it was due. Sometimes she tried to sing like the original artist, but it seemed a little too bland for her taste. Then Jude suggested adding Meena's personal flair to the song, but then it just sounded like she was trying too hard. At the end of the day, Meena's eyes were heavy. She had memorized the lyrics, but still did not know how to sing it. She was ready to lie down in her bed and let her pillow take her away. But as the bus rounded the corner to her street, the two friends quickly saw that dream fade away.

Apparently Meena's grandmother had decided her granddaughter deserved another celebration for getting into the show. However, instead of simply baking another batch of her delectable sweets or inviting one or two of her school friends to join, she went above and beyond and invited the entire neighborhood to join in the festivities! Meena covered her face and tried to sink down into her seat and let the bus pass by their stop, trying to avoid the oncoming commotion. Jude considered that they sleep on the bus that night, but it was already too late. Her family saw the two through the windows and gathered everyone to the door. So the two stepped off of their quiet shelter and into the crowd.

"Hey, at least they brought the good pizza!" Jude remarked, munching away on their breakfast. Meena almost didn't hear her friend, as they kept nodding off as the bus rode on. The night before was the complete opposite of what she had wanted to come home to: quiet. Instead, she was surrounded by relatives, friends, and friends of the parents who assaulted her with questions and pictures. The quiet she had hoped for was replaced with constant chatting and loud music. It took until an hour after midnight for the guests to clear out and give the elephant some well needed rest, giving her barely enough time to do so. Jude meanwhile seemed like they had an entirely different night, as they seemed just as well rested as the days before. They offered a slice of leftover pizza to her friend (all of which was placed in a pouch for the two to eat throughout the day), but Meena had fallen back to sleep. Honoring her unspoken wish, Jude kept quiet.

As the ride went on, more animals boarded the bus to ride to their jobs, just like any other day. But for some unknown reason, it seemed to Jude that almost everyone was extremely noisy that day. Talking loudly on their phones, conversing louder than needed with other passengers, watching things on their phones with the volume blasting; it felt to Jude that everyone was trying to get on their nerves that day! The jaguar looked back at Meena, who was starting to look very annoyed at the lack of silence. Jude knew that they had to stand up for her. When Ash got on the bus with headphones in her ears, blasting rock music so loud that Jude could even hear it, they felt like they had enough. Jude waved Ash's attention over to them, trying to put on their happy mask.

"Hey, can you turn down the music please? Meena's trying to sleep." Jude asked while smiling, accidentally making it look menacing with their fangs. Ash looked down at her popped out ear-bud, slightly confused at the jaguar's request.

"But I'm wearing headphones, and I can barely hear anything from it this far." Ash commented. With Ash's failure to go along with Jude's simple request, the jaguar tried to hold in their anger and attempted to kindly ask again. Instead, they did the exact opposite.

"I think the loud music could have damaged your hearing since I'm pretty sure you listen to it all the time, so I think you should know that even though you had headphones in, everyone else could still hear the music, so I think it kinda defeats the purpose of wearing headphones, you know? So please turn down the music so I don't have to ask again, _alright_?" The jaguar flashed their fangs at the porcupine, signaling that she goes along with their demands or else. Ash put her hands up and scooted backwards on her seat, getting chills from Jude's icy glare.

"Okay okay! Sheesh, sorry mom." Ash complained sarcastically. The rocker did what she was asked, then put her earbuds back in at a satisfying level of quiet for everyone else. Jude leaned back in their seat, still annoyed at the remaining noise on the bus. Some animals behind the three, however, had decided to quiet down after seeing the predator's fierce behavior. It was completely fine by Jude, ' _Any quiet is good quiet.'_ Next to them, Meena snored with a slight flick of her trunk, restoring Jude's mood. But then it went back down again when they heard the familiar sound of three frogs arguing. Jude slowly turned their head, peeking out the window and hoping that it was just their imagination. But to everyone's disappointment, the frog trio was there and doing the same thing as the past two days.

Jude pressed their hands against their ears, trying to block out the noise. But somehow, mixed in with the other passengers from the back, it was even louder. The jaguar barely even noticed Rosita sitting down in her usual spot, holding one of her many kids. The mother of many looked at the jaguar, seeing the anger in their eyes, and knew that the noise only meant trouble. But before Rosita could reach out and calm down the Jaguar, they snapped and stomped their foot on the middle of the aisle, stopping the frogs in their tracks. The force from Jude's foot was so strong, that it caused the rest of the bus to shake, making the rest of the passengers stop what they were doing and look at the action that was about to unfold.

One of the frogs who were already angry pointed up to the jaguar, not knowing what they were getting into. But when he saw Jude's fangs, his knees turned to jelly along with the other two. Having enough of the trio's constant bickering, Jude flicked out a claw and knelt down to their level, growling so low that one could mistake it for the bus's engine. The entire bus watched in horror, intrigue and satisfaction as the frog trio started to shiver in fear.

"Listen up you slimy little idiots." Jude growled deeply at the three, pointing the claw in their direction. "Everyone around you is sick and tired of your constant arguments. Honestly, haha, I don't even have a clue to how you three are even still together doing this since I've only ever seen you three yell at each other instead of actually singing! But don't worry, I understand that you might not have noticed since all three of you are so DENSE to do so! So listen closely!" The claw crept closer to the trio, causing them to group together.

"I don't want to hear a PEEP out of you three for the rest of the competition. The only time it will be acceptable for me to hear you three will be if you actually practice for the competition, and if I hear any of you arguing, or people complaining about your arguing ever again, none of you will be able to argue or sing in any other singing competition EVER AGAIN! Now, did that message reach through your dense skulls, or must I give an example of what might happen if you _**DON'T FOLLOW DIRECTIONS?!**_ " Jude pressed the claw to the supposed leader of the trio, making him go stiff with fear. The frog trio shook their heads as fast as they possible could, hugging each other out of fear for what the jaguar might do to them.

"Good." Jude retracted their claw and sat up straight again, still glaring daggers at the three while waving them off. "Now run along now. And remember! _Not. A. Peep_." The three ran to their seats so fast it seemed like they had rockets for shoes. As they ran out of sight, Jude took a long, deep breath to try and calm down. The rest of the passengers all seemed to go dead quiet after the standoff between predator and prey; possibly too terrified to speak up in fear that the jaguar might go for them next. Said jaguar didn't seem to care about that, as they were just happy to get some silence for them and their friend. Next to them, Ash, Rosita and her piglet all stared in awe at Jude. For Rosita it was mixed in with horror, for Ash it was satisfaction, and amazement for the piglet. Jude didn't care about them either, nor did they try to start a conversation with any of them. Jude took a look at Meena, who to their satisfaction, was still sleeping. The jaguar considered their job well done, and soaked in the silence, save for the bus's engine.

Little did they know that Meena was already awake, terrified at just how far Jude might go for her.

* * *

"Meena, if this is what you want then it's fine with me!" Jude tried to reassure their friend. They flipped through the DVDs while sitting on the table, trying to find anything that Meena might like. But with each flip Meena felt more and more unsure about her choices. "If you want a different song, we can practice a different song. It's your choice, not mine."

"I-I know, I know. But I already know most of the lyrics from the song. Wouldn't it just be easier to do this one then?" The elephant began to pace back and forth, thinking about what would be better for the competition. The two were just in the middle of practicing when Meena mumbled it to herself as she sang "Beautiful" for the twenty-seventh time. But it came out so suddenly for her, and before she knew it, Jude had already tossed aside the disk for the song. ' _I already know all of the words. So why doesn't this feel right?'_

"But you said yourself that we should try different songs. Plus, it looked to me like you were starting to get sick of that song too." Jude put down the pile of disks, thinking that all of the songs Meena might like was sorted. "Alright, I think you might like these ones. Don't worry, I got rid of those teen pop songs, so you don't have to worry about those." Finally looking at their friend, Jude saw that she didn't notice them calling her over. She was still pacing and tugging on her ears, trying to clear her head and make a decision. Jude was concerned for her; they could read her like an open book, and this is the most stressed they've ever seen her since high school. So her friend stepped into her pacing path and grabbed her shoulders.

"Meena, listen to me. You choose a song that you like, not one that will help you win. This is a singing competition, so the only way you'll win is if you're comfortable with a song. Do a song that you want to do, not one that you feel like you have to do, alright?"

"But"-

"Miss Therna!" The two friends were interrupted by the owner of the theater, who just popped in to check on the two. Since he showed up, he had no idea what the two were doing. Looking as chipper as ever in his suit, he gestured to the door. "You ready to start your stagehand training?"

"Oh, just Jude is alright. And, uh, just a sec." Jude turned back to their friend, who was still feeling unsure about the whole situation. Patting her on the shoulder, Jude put on a genuine smile.

"Listen, I'm going to go practice with Buster. How about you take a break for now and think about what to do? You've been singing for almost an hour now anyways, you deserve it." Before Meena could get a word out, her friend was already leaving with Buster. Pulling herself out of her timid stupor, she tried to call out to them.

"Wait, Jude"-

"Just take a break for now, I'm sure that you'll figure it out eventually!" They yelled from the hallway. Jude followed the koala through the halls of the theater to their first day of training, leaving Meena alone with her thoughts. Forced into solitude, she sat down and tried to think. She could finally think by herself, but she wasn't sure if that was the best thing to do. Taking a deep breath, she focused and weighed her options.

On one hand, she practically mastered "Beautiful" by itself. She knew all of the lyrics and she could copy the singing one to one. If Meena stuck with this song, she would have much more time to do other things for the competition, such as picking out the right dress and make up some sort of routine for the show. ' _Jude did say that it would be a while before the actual competition, so I would be all set long before the actual competition.'_

But on the other hand, something about this song just didn't click with her. She may have mastered singing it one to one, but that just didn't feel right. She couldn't find the right way to convey it, but she just felt uncomfortable singing this just to sing it. A part of her wanted to try something new, but another made her feel obligated to stick with this song. The two thoughts clashed in her head until eventually, Meena flopped down and lied on her back, letting out a frustrated groan. She was absolutely lost.

She stared up at the ceiling, unmoving. A mix of various different music genres filled her ears, similar to the party from last night. Ash's rock music mixed in with Pete's opera singing, which didn't mix well together along with Johnny's piano upstairs. She suddenly felt tired again, but not exactly sleepy. It was after listening to the music mix of everything and thinking about her own frustration, she asked herself. ' _Why am I doing this?'_

It seemed like it would be fun at first. She made new friends on her first day, she got to spend time with her old friend, and even got to do what she loved to do the most: sing! The tryouts were not the best, but she was sure that it would only get better from there now that Jude was at her side, promising that they wouldn't do anything brash. But here she was three days later, wondering if this is really what she wanted or what somebody else wanted.

She thought about how she got into the competition in the first place. Jude showed up out of nowhere bringing the flyer so suddenly, her parents encouraging her to bring Jude along and her friend saying that they would support her. But she already knew that she was scared of crowds and people staring at her, and so did her parents. ' _I knew that everyone who has a TV would watch me on stage, and that I would just freeze up with people staring at me. So why did I decide to do it then of all times?'_ Then the answer came to her.

It was Jude.

This was the first time ever since their High School graduation that they got to be together. It was like this ever since Freshman year. Meena saw them in class, but was never able to really _see_ them. When they were paired in classes, they were always intent on trying to focus on work 100% and go for extra credit, never wanting to focus on the latest gossip of the school or talking. When they had lunch together, they could never sit together since her friend was working with the lunch-ladies. When they passed in the hall, Jude wasn't even able to say hi to her. Their attitude changed completely seemingly overnight from the typical laid back attitude they had, to a student devoted to their studies and nothing else. She felt like her childhood friend was avoiding her, and it killed her not knowing why.

It was even worse outside of school. Whenever Meena tried to get together with Jude, they always said that they were busy. They were always busy no matter what day of the week it was, and no matter what holiday it could have been. But what was really strange was that sometimes, when her family all went out together, Jude seemed to be working everywhere. One day she saw them working at a movie theater, and the next Jude would be working at the local library, then the next day it would be at an ice cream shop! Sometimes Meena asked when they get off work so they could chat, even for a minute. But still, they only gave excuses.

"Gotta save up for college!" They said when they were found at a new job. "Saving up for student loans, you know?" Jude said when asked why they have so many different jobs. "Sorry, maybe some other time." Jude said every single time they turned Meena down to catch up on life. It seemed exhausting to the elephant at how many jobs Jude had at once. She was worried not only that Jude could be overworking themself, but also that she might not ever meet with them ever again.

Jude showing up out of nowhere with the flyer was the first time in years she saw Jude outside of work. This competition was their first chance since high school they could talk together and hang out like old times. They got to sleep over, catch up on each others' lives (even though it was mostly Meena doing that), and most of all, Meena got to see Jude give a genuine smile for the first time in years. It gave her a chance to be together with them, and that was what she had wished to happen for so long. ' _So I guess I did all of this, for them?'_ she questioned herself.

' _...maybe I should go for a walk.'_ she decided after pondering on that question for over a minute.

The elephant lifted herself up off of the floor and grabbed her phone from the table, checking it to try and distract herself for a moment before she headed out. Along with three missed calls, there were a couple texts from her mother. She opened up the messages and checked out what her mom had said.

"Hi sweetie! I hope you two aren't too tired over there from the party last night. We're sorry that you had to stay up late for everybody. So to make up for it, I got you a pretty dress that you can wear for the competition! I don't want to give it away since I want to keep it a surprise, but I'll just say this: it was my old prom dress! Can't wait to see you tonight, love you! -Mom"

A tiny alarm went off in Meena's head when she read the words "prom dress." She had heard her mother talk about that dress before, several times. She said "I bought it last minute for prom on the day of the dance, trying to find something pretty enough to go dancing with your father. Then when I saw that dress, I KNEW that it was the one and bought it on the spot! I didn't even bother to check the price tag or try it on in a fitting room, I just knew it was the one! So then when I walked into the hall and everyone saw me, they stopped dead in their tracks! Men, women, prey, predator, it didn't matter who saw me, ALL of their jaws dropped for me!" Meena was worried that it might be too flashy and/or revealing for her taste, but she would just have to wait home to find out.

She texted her mom back, trying to sound polite.

"Thanks mom, I can't wait to see it! And don't worry, we were both well rested before we got here! Everything's all good, over here. I'll see you tonight! Love you!"

Then stuffing her phone in her pants pocket, she walked out into the halls of the theater, hoping that she would be able to find a way to clear her head and make a decision on what to do for her song choice. However, the prom dress and thoughts of Jude didn't exactly help the process.


	8. Pleasant Distractions

**Pleasant Distractions**

Various types of music flooded the backstage halls of the theater as Meena searched for something to soothe her mind. All of the other contestants were focusing on their own songs, performing and practicing with everything they had. Nobody else was taking a break or taking notice of other things, which made Meena a little more anxious since she was the only animal walking around. Thinking of the past and future of her family only made herself flustered and confused whenever she tried, so she thought that listening to other animals' performances would calm her down. However, all of the types of music being played at once and mashed together only hurt her ears and head; it felt as if somebody was playing all of the radio stations at once, perfectly symbolizing her current thoughts. She thought that to calm herself down, all she would have to do is listen to just one of these stations and focus on it while blocking the others out. But that was easier said than done due to her above-average hearing.

When she was in her "soundproof" rehearsal room, she could still hear music and chatter coming from the outside. Jude and Meena were both slightly annoyed since they weren't truthfully advertised, but it was bearable because it was only white noise when they were separated from other performers in their own boxed off areas. But now that she was in the halls, all of the singing together felt like something was forcing its way into her mind. Meena wasn't sure if Buster was lying when he said that the boxes were sound-proof or if they were just out of date, but it was obvious that leaving her room only jumbled her mind more.

She tried instead to focus on what to do next while she was taking her break. There were many animals practicing right then, so she could watch/listen to what they have managed to accomplish thus far. The elephant threw away the thought of how they would be better and considered her options. Rosita was in her box at the moment, setting some sort of papers onto the floor before Gunter arrived; she could help her set up whatever it was she was making as a way of repaying her for the breathing techniques. Ash was strumming on her guitar at random, not exactly playing to any sort of tune, so she could talk to her. She seemed down though, so Meena decided that she might want to be left alone. There was also Pete, who the elephant had not yet talked to that much, so she could introduce herself formally while listening to him. She already knew that the frogs, Mike and the red pandas wouldn't be a good idea. The frog trio because they would just start another argument and possibly hound her for her friend's behavior, the red pandas because they only spoke japanese (which she did not know in the slightest) and Mike because Mike. There was also the possibility of watching Jude and Buster work on stagehand practice, but she didn't think that it would be wise to interrupt them.

But before she could make a decision, Meena could feel a slight bump on her leg followed by a small "oof!" The teenager was shaken due to her thoughts being interrupted all of a sudden and slipped out a meek "eep!" When Meena looked down to find the source, she found a small pigget that was no bigger than her knee. He wore an bright orange and red lined shirt along with lime green shorts that matched well with the colors. A moment of thinking helped her remember that he was the child Rosita had with her when they were on the bus ride to the theater. She could also tell he was Rosita's child just by looking at the resemblance between the two: same color, freckles, same eyebrows and same snout shape. However, Rosita had also mentioned that he was with her because the child was sick and couldn't go to school, yet now he appeared to be perfectly healthy and energetic. However, he didn't seem to care that he was caught in the act, and was much more interested in the animal in front of him. The piglet stared up at Meena with an expression that could only be described as " _childhood curiosity_ " with his eyes wide and mouth in an O shape.

"You're tall!" The child finally spoke, hopping up and pointing at Meena's face. After taking a moment to process, Meena smiled and giggled. His innocence was adorable to her, it reminded Meena of when she was a kid. So she decided to play along with him and answer his questions.

"I guess I am!" Meena looked at her arms and feet while playing dumb to get a good reaction. Her plan worked and the young boy giggled as well. Meena had managed to find something to take her mind off of everything.

"You're an, eleifant, right?" The piglet spoke slowly while pronouncing "elephant" incorrectly; he clearly had never heard somebody say it before. Meena giggled again and then nodded to the boy.

"Are all eleifants tall like you?" He asked.

"A couple are. But there are some other animals like me that are much taller!" The eleifant lifted her trunk up above her head while standing on the tips of her toes, showing just how tall some of her species could be. The child's eyes sparkled with pure amazement and wonder. The piglet began to rapid fire questions that went by so fast that it was hard to discern what exactly he was saying. Meena tried to calm him down and tell him to do one question at a time, but he didn't stop talking. She could make out a couple words here and there, however, such as "school, brothers, city" and so on. His energeticness was adorable to her. When he looked away from her for a moment to talk to himself, the teenager looked back to Rosita to see if she noticed the two of them.

She was currently welcoming in Gunter, who had finally arrived after Rosita finished placing all of the stacks of paper on the floor. Whatever she was saying to him was silenced by the melting pot of music, but it seemed like she had prepared some sort of exercise. The boombox from their room blurted out old synthesizer music, which was hard to place a finger on when it was jumbled with opera and guitar solos. Whatever it was, the mother's attention was mainly on what was in her room, and she did not look for her child anywhere. Meena determined that the young child must have been a great actor if he was able to fool his mother into taking him with her. As the piglet began to catch his breath from the rapid fire question streak, Meena decided to bring that topic up.

"Hey…" the teenager looked down to him as if she had just put the final piece in the puzzle. "Aren't you supposed to be sick?" The boy automatically tensed up when he realized that he was caught in the act. After fumbling with his words for a moment, he faced Meena once again. She was trying to put up an act of a scolding parent with her arms crossed and her foot tapping the wooden floor beneath them. She couldn't contain a smile on her face though, since she couldn't help but find pretending to be strict funny. He tensed up even more.

"Um, uhhh…" the spotlight was now on him now. He was cornered and had nowhere to run; Meena had caught the boy in the act, and now he was going to do hard time. Meena had to restrain herself from bursting from laughter as she thought these things and while Casper became even more flustered. But when the boy saw the eleifant's expression, he figured that there would be no use for pretending any longer.

"Alright, fine! I'll talk!" He yelled in a panic. The tone he spoke in sounded as if he was being put through police interrogation, and he had finally cracked under pressure. Meena managed to stuff away her giggling and listened to the child's story.

"I didn't wanna take a math test today! Math is really, really hard and dumb and I know that mommy would be mad!" The boy puffed up his cheeks and stomped a foot. "So I put the sick stick in a lamp and put on a face and I got to come here! This place is so cooler than school! I saw an old lady, an eleifant and a monster on the bus! I love this place!" She couldn't fully understand what he had said, but she could grasp the concept: the child didn't want to take a test so he faked sick. The eleifant tried to translate the child's speak while he explained even more about why he likes the Moon Theater.

' _Sick stick… he said that he put it in the lamp, to trick his mom. So maybe a thermometer? He also said he saw an old lady, that one has to be Miss Crawley. She's one of the only animals here that's clearly seen much more than we have. But wait, what did he mean by a monster? What did_ '-

The answer clicked before the thought even finished. The piglet may have been faking sick on the bus, but it was still awake at that time. What Jude had done back there and how they acted… they must have been the monster. To think that even a young child called them scary was, disheartening at least. Meena shook off the thoughts fast; she was here talking to this kid to get those things off of her mind! She put back on her act and continued to play along with the child, letting the memories of this morning slip her mind.

"But you do know that lying to your mom is bad, right?" She loomed over him with an attempt to copy Rosita's motherly look. It seemed to work as the piglet froze up again and became more panicked. A plethora of expressions glossed over his face at once, but after fumbling with his words even more, his face dropped and he began to explain everything truthfully.

"But I wanna play with mamma, not sit in school and learn numbers!" The boy whined, disappointed that he couldn't fool the teenager. "Mom is playing games here too, so I can't I go play?!" The boy had a feeling that it would have to go back to school after this since he was caught in a lie. But when he looked up at the teenager, he saw not the scolding expression that his mother has a lot but instead a doting one. Not that he knew what that word actually meant though.

"That's really sweet," Meena said, "but you mom isn't playing a game… that you know at least. It's very complicated, and only her new friend knows how to teach her." The elephant kneeled down and pointed to Gunter, who was practicing a dance routine with the mother that matched the synthesizer music. But it seemed as if the papers that Rosita spread across the floor were not being used well, as Gunter was only dancing wildly to the music while Rosita looked downwards to the papers and follow some sort of pattern. The two didn't have any choreography that fit for the both of them together, and anyone could tell that it would take a while for them to find that perfect routine. The piglet looked on then back to Meena with a confused tone.

"But that just looks like dancing!" He whinned. "I wanna dance toooooo!" Meena had a feeling that if the child went to his mother to play, their progress would only be hindered. Rosita didn't know that her son was faking to skip school and she didn't seem too worried about it either. It he went in now, she would have to scold him and take time out of her practice to bring him back to school. All of that time wasted would surely not be beneficial for any of the contestants. So with that, the elephant decided to go along with a plan that she thought of to have Rosita focus on her practice while also getting her mind off of the events of earlier today.

"Hey, do you like candy?" The elephant teased. The piglet's attitude changed so fast and it became fully interested in what Meena had to say. He nodded quickly with his eyes wide. "Well do you know how your mom gets you candy?"

"With money!" He cheered, feeling accomplished that he knew the answer right away.

"That's right!" She nodded. "Now, the game your mama is playing is very important. If she wins the game, then she will get lots of money! And if she gets lots of money…" she made motions with her arms and let the piglet try to figure out for himself. Just like before, his eyes sparkled and he gasped.

"I can get a lot of candy!" He cheered. Meena felt a tad guilty for having to lie to the boy, but she had a feeling that this would be one of the only ways that he would leave Rosita alone. She believed that every one of the other contestants here deserved an equal chance to win the competition. He may try to pester Rosita later about getting candy, but this would be the best way for her to repay Rosita's kindness at the moment.

' _It's the least I can do for her anyways_.'

"So now that you know your mommy should play her game, what're you going to do now?" The child's face became troubled once again and he turned away to consider his options, much like how Meena tried to think earlier. He mumbled to himself about completely random things that she could not hear thanks to the merged mass of music around them, but the boy was obviously confused. If he went to try and help Rosita, he would only be a bother to her. But he really wanted to play with his mother and the new person that was with her; they seemed to be having lots of fun in his eyes. The other pig was throwing piles of papers into the air while his mother was trying to collect them before they touched the ground. He could tell that they were playing a really complicated game. When he began to grumble, Meena decided that she could just make a decision for him.

"How about you walk around with me? I can show you the theater while your mama practices." She offered, to which he immediately spun around and responded with a sparkle in his eyes.

"Yes please!" He said while bouncing up and down slightly from excitement. The elephant giggled at how fast the child changed moods in a heartbeat. She extended her arm for the young boy to shake, which he gladly expected without hesitation.

"My name is Casper!" The boy said, trying to use his entire body to give her a good hoofshake. After trying too hard to lift up the arm and falling back, the two of them let out an open giggle and Meena stood up.

"Well it's nice to meet you Casper, I'm Meena. Now come on, let's go explore!" Meena tried to sound as chipper as she could be as she pointed to a nearby staircase ahead of them. Through all of the noise, faint piano music could be heard from upstairs, only making the two more curious. Not passing up an opportunity for adventure, Casper jumped back up and mimicked his new friend's movements with an enthusiastic cry, and just like the teenager said, the two climbed the stairs to explore the source of the piano music.

—

"Okay, now you've learned the ropes!" Buster Moon chuckled while walking with his new stagehand. The two had just finished going over which cables and levers affected which stage props. Jude smirked at the koala's dorky pun, which didn't take them long to understand.

"Just how many other stagehands did you tell that joke to?" They taunted him. The koala chuckled for a moment since Jude understood the joke, and then pretended to be shocked and let out an utterly fake gasp.

"Jude, I am appalled that you would even suggest that! To think that I would say the exact same joke every time? Do you truly think that I am so cheap to do such a thing?" Both of the animals looked at each other with the most serious expression they could put on, which quickly vanished and was replaced by giggling after a few moments. After a quick rundown of which stage parts did what, Buster had felt confident that Jude would be a quality pick for stagehand. Each time he introduced a new element of the stage, they would ask questions about the functions and purposes. The jaguar was also strong enough to pull certain cables down when a lever didn't work, which was often a problem whenever he had to hire a new animal for the job. Most of the other stagehands he had interviewed showed little work ethic and, more often than not, would focus on anything else when he was teaching how to operate things from backstage. But when explaining the different aspects of being a stagehand to Jude, they took it more seriously than other animal that he tried to hire in the past!

They also understood his puns, which was another rare occurrence

"Well anyhow, since you now know the elements of stagehandling, how about we put your skills to the test?" The owner offered while walking onto the barren stage. Jude's smirk faded and was replaced with confusion while Buster took another moment to admire the beauty of his business. Jude walked with him onto the main floor, letting their shoes squeak from walking on the slick, wooden floor.

"What do you mean?" They asked, not paying much attention to the world around them.

"What do you think of this?" He adjusted his tie and then gestured to the stage in its entirety, then proceeded to explain. "I always say that the best teacher is experience. So to test how well you are now and what you will need to improve on, we have a contestant do their performance. Then while they sing and dance, you follow along with the cues that I tell you. That way, we'll both get a good gauge on where your skills are currently." Buster held his hands out by his sides, leaving the jaguar open to decide for themself. Jude let out a low "hmm" and rubbed the back of their head while looking away. After a few moments of consideration, Jude looked back down to the koala with a hesitant expression.

"Are you sure that's a good idea though?" The jaguar spoke. "I mean, this is my first time doing this and I could easily mess something up. I might end up hurting someone, or…" They trailed off and their eyes stared at nothing in particular. In their mind, the jaguar went back to the disaster that can only be named as the " **Surf's Up Sinker**." The koala searched around, thinking that they were staring at something but quickly gave up. He had no idea what horrors Jude had brought upon themself in the past.

"Don't worry, I'm sure that you'll do fine! I mean, what could possibly go wrong? What, would the entire building burn down since you tried to do this?" The koala joked around while turning in a circle. His laugh quickly went away as soon as he saw Jude's mortified stare. His large, fluffy ears retreated backwards when he suspected that he had said something wrong.

"You do realize, by saying what you just said, that will most likely happen now. Right?" The black-spotted feline spoke only in a tone of pure horror while maintaining their terrified stare. Buster retreated backwards and released the most nervous laugh Jude had ever heard. He raised a finger to try to argue with the jaguar, but seeing their expression quickly made him reconsider. The fact that almost all of his past stagehands had heard his exact same reaction also was a factor that made him walk away, following his finger as it pointed to the stage doors.

"I'm gonna go get somebody." His words were released quickly without pause as he power walked out of the doors and back into the jumbled hodgepodge of music, which was silenced as soon as the doors closed behind him. Jude was left on center stage, spotlight centered on them despite there being no stagehand to do so. Their stress began to pile up once again, just like when they tried to substitute as the stagehand on the day of the " **Surf's Up Sinker**." They had discarded their fears for doing this at first, but now that Buster was about to test the feline they came back, tapping on their shoulder. The voices in their head decided to pay a visit once more and not one of them were being welcomed. Jude tried to rid of them by using Rosita's deep breathing techniques, but they were no match for the sheer size of them. So to do anything to get their mind off of the stress, the jaguar walked to the edge of the stage and dangled themself off the side, hanging by their legs. They hoped that the blood rushing to their head would get the stress to leave, but it did not bring the result that they expected.

"Shut up." The jaguar said to their thoughts after a few moments of silence. The feline knew that the thoughts were coming, so they quickly shut them down before any of them said a word.

" _But you do realize that_ "-

"Nope. Shut up. I'm not listening." They crossed their arms and closed their eyes. The thought chuckled at Jude's cluelessness.

" _Of all of the things you could have done to help her, why on earth did you choose something that will lead to a second "_ _ **Surf's Up Sinker"**_ _?!_ "

"Shut uuuup!" Their voice turned into a growl as their fangs began to bare at nothing.

" _What, do you want this to fail?! Do you want Meena to hate you all over again_?!"

"I SAID SHUT UP!" The jaguar shot straight back up with a scream that echoed throughout the vast seating area. Claws dug into their clenched paws, but quickly released when the head rush came all at once. Breathing quickened as the feline collapsed to the ground and held their head in pain. It may have been the most painful method of stopping the negative thoughts in their head, but it was still the most effective. It was at that moment when Buster decided to step back in as the jaguar stumbled upwards.

"Um, Jude? Were you talking to somebody?" The koala spoke up in a caring tone as his new stagehand recovered from the head rush. Jude took in a deep breath and was about to brush off their yell, but then they saw just who Buster had chosen to help them practice. He seemed just as shocked as them, since his mouth was opened so wide that Jude could see his large, buck teeth. Jude and the mouse stared at each other in astonishment; both were absolutely appalled by the koala's unexpected decision, and after the two stared each other down for about ten seconds, the mediator stepped in to explain the situation.

"Alright Mike, you are going to do your performance on stage. Meanwhile, Jude is going to practice being a stagehand and"-

"OH **HELL** NO!" The pompous mouse screamed with rage. The koala tried to speak up so he could negotiate with the blood-dressed mouse, but he walked right under him and onto his greatest enemy for the past few days. Jude just crossed their arms with a stern look on their face, trying to stay unmoved at whatever Mike was about to say.

"Buster, I appreciate you and this contest yer running here, I really do! But are you THIS DAFT?! Sticking the freak that went crazy at me, over an insult no less, in charge of doing the lights for MY performance?!" Mike had not pulled a single punch when it came to insulting his predator. All of the anger and self-confidence from the past few days were unmatched by this one moment. Jude however, was unphased, and would probably never be unless he was actually a larger animal, such as a polar bear or lion.

"I… will choose to ignore those comments about me. But Mike, this would be a perfect chance for the both of you to improve! You need to make sure that your performance is ready for the show, and Jude needs to"-

"No, nope! Absolutely not! I refuse to let that freak come anywhere near me!" The mouse pointed up to the "freak" in question, who was beginning to become very tired of the mouse's antics. Buster pinched the tip of his wide, slick nose while trying to think of something that would separate the two animals from each others' throats. But those possibilities were drowned out by the argument moving forward and accelerating with each passed insult.

"And yet you walked up right up next to me without any problem." The stagehand mumbled. Mike's ears perked up in the jaguar's direction and he snapped around as soon as he heard it. The mouse was about to stomp up to the jaguar to yell at them more, but realizing that it would only prove their point, he lowered his foot before it could stomp onto the floor.

"Say that to my face punk!" He jabbed himself with his own thumb, and so Jude happily complied with his request. They laid on their stomach and pointed directly at his face, which was slowly becoming the color of his suit.

"I said that despite you not wanting to get close to me, you already did."

"Well who would want to get close to a psycho like you?!"

"Obviously you do considering how you marched over here."

"HAH! So you're not denying that you're a freak!"

"Oh shut up with that!" Jude pushed themself up, making Mike flinch from the fear of the auditions moment happening once again. Jude, once again, was unwatered.

"If you've been paying attention at all, then you would have noticed that I can't control that! Just like you can't control your own ego!"

"Do you really think that I'd believe a lie like that?! You're dumber than you look!"

"And you're even more arrogant than I thought if you couldn't even acknowledge the most glaring details that are right in front of you!"

"Oh yeah?! Well-uh-SCREW YOU!"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Buster stepped in right as the mouse was running out of clever comebacks. Mike was keeping a fair distance while also being close enough to yell in their face. Meanwhile, Jude was on their hands and knees to get down to the mouse's level and pointing at him with a slightly emerged claw. As Buster stepped in between the two, Jude lifted themself back up into a cross-legged stance while Mike was being held back by the koala's large, fluffy hand. He was already angry at the fact that two of his contestants were only an inch away from slugging at each other, but the fact that neither of them were going to improve if this issue continued frustrated him even more. So Buster took the initiative and tried to form some sort of truce between the two.

"Look. Both of you." The pepiness in his voice was morphed into an uninterested, frustrated one that would resonate with a father trying to calm a quarrel between his two children about who ate the last cookie. "If you two want to argue outside of rehearsals, then that's fine. However, if this quarrel between you two continues to affect your, or possibly even other animals' performances, then I will take appropriate action to ensure that this contest runs fairly and smoothly."

"But this kid"-

"SO!" The koala intentionally interrupted the mouse to shut him up before another fight began. He used both paws to point a finger in the direction of where each animal should go: Jude to backstage and Mike to the main stage. "How about the both of you focus less on your anger for each other, and more on the passion for winning? That sounds much better, wouldn't you say?" The optimist within the small animal had returned as quickly as it had left. Without taking a moment to listen to either of the two's answer, Buster grabbed Jude's paw and headed for backstage to practice. Mike's glare to the jaguar intensified as it became more clear to him that the "mediator" had chosen Jude's side from the beginning. But, deciding that there was no further point in arguing anymore, Mike picked up the large microphone and cleared his throat. If he wasn't able to win against Jude in an argument, he sure as hell would take the chance to prove to them that their elephant friend was not going to win the competition that easily.

 _'I am going to win._ ' He thought. ' _Even if that freak tries to do something, I'm going to beat them! Nothing will ever stop me!'_

Buster led Jude backstage to the control board that contained all of the functions for the overhead lights. Without saying a word, he ruffled through a couple random objects and found a CD labeled "Mike." It appeared that the mouse had already chosen the song he would sing for the competition and reported it to Buster so he could burn it to a disc. He inserted the disc into a nearby boombox and pressed play, letting the chorus of brass instruments fill the room. Stepping back next to Jude, Buster managed to regain his composure just from adjusting his tie and put back on a happy face. He looked up at Jude, then back to Mike, waiting in anticipation for a chance to test out his new stagehands abilities. As Mike began to snap his fingers and caress the microphone, Jude's expression hardened from determination.

 _'I can't let that little smug douche get to me.'_ They thought _. 'I don't care what else he's going to say about me or Meena. I am going to help her win this competition. And I'm not going to let this tiny mouse have any say in the matter!_

 _No matter what happens, Meena is going to win._

 _Meena NEEDS to win._

 _And I'm not going to let this douche change my mind in any way.'_


End file.
